


Sorega Ai, Deshou?

by RenkonNairu



Category: Fatal Fury, King of Fighters
Genre: 10 Year Gap, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Growing Up Together, Martial Arts, Ninja, Revenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-02 08:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 92,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10213379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenkonNairu/pseuds/RenkonNairu
Summary: (Started back in 2009, originally posted on fan fiction.net, then abandoned and never finished.)Long fic. A story detailing Andy's training during those 10 years between Jeff's death and the beginning of Fatal Fury.





	1. Transportation and Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old fic I abandoned years ago and haven't really thought much of since. But recently, another author has appeared in the Fatal Fury fandom who ALSO writes for my ship. This person has rekindled some of my dormant love for this game series and, Andy and Mai especially. So I thought I'd give finishing this fic a try. 
> 
> This story was oringally posted on fan fiction.net back in 2009 and I managed to write up to 23 chapters before losing interest and abandoning it. 
> 
> When transplanting it here to AO3, I am literally just copy-pasting the chapters from ff.n and am not doing any additional editing or proof-reading. All chapters up to number 23 will have all the original typos, misspellings, and auto-correct errors it had back in 2009. If you choose not to read it because of this, I understand. The new chapters I am writing in the hopes of actually COMPLETING this fic should be better edited. 
> 
> Thank you for your time.
> 
> -Renkon

Andy gazed out his window as the veil of cloud cover parted to reveal the jagged coast of the archipelago. Turning his attention back to the piece of paper he'd been clutching like a talisman since take off. The boy reread the letter that was written upon it in polite if a little overly formal English.

'Dear Tung; my old friend,

'Please allow me to express my deepest condolences for the loss of your friend and pupil Jeffry Bogard. I myself had only met him once, briefly and hoped that we could have met at least once more before his tragic passing. Please convey my sympathies to his children.

'On the subject of the young Bogard brothers, I would be more than honored to accept the younger boy, Andy, as a student of my style of ninjitsu. I, unfortunately, will be unable to pick him up from the airport, as I will be attending to family business that day. But our mutual friend Yamada Jubei has agreed to pick the boy up and accompany him all the way to Niigata.

'I look forward to what we may learn from each other.

'Sincerely, Shiranui Hanzo'

Andy folded the note again and replaced it in his pocket, his attention returning to the window and the ground that was steadily rising up to meet him. He was only nine and had never been to Japan before. He'd never even been outside of South Town before. Now here he was in a completely foreign country, halfway around the world. He was completely out of his comfort zone and there was no turning back now.

But then again, it seemed like he hadn't even had a comfort zone since dad had died. The boy shut his eyes as if doing so could block the memory that rose to the surface of his mind. Jeff Bogard, his and Terry's adopted father, stabbed. Geese engaging him in a one on one fight, Jeff falling to the ground, Geese's vile smirk of triumph… Jeff's… his father's death.

"You okay, sweety?" A passing flight attendant asked. Master Tung had requested that they keep an eye on him. Not just because he was only nine years old and flying alone but because he was nine years old, flying alone and he recently had witnessed his father die an extremely violent death.

Andy blinked at her in confusion, then wiped his eyes. He wasn't aware that he'd been crying. "Fine. Thanks." He lied.

She regarded the boy a moment longer before replying, "Well, if you're sure… We'll be landing soon, hun."

"Thank you."

The attendant gave a polite bow of the head before continuing on down the aisle. Andy returned her bow with a slight nod of the head. If he was going to be living in Japan for the next ten years he should really get used to all this bowing all the time.

Master Tung had taught him and Terry that it was polite to bow to your opponent before a match, that it conveyed respect for the other fighter. He often saw Jeff bow to Tung after a lesson or a practice match; this was explained as thanking the master for his instruction and his time.

It was a new concept for the nine year old to bow when someone is introduced, when someone enters a conversation, when a conversation is ended, when entering a room or leaving it, when thanking someone, when apologizing to someone… He hadn't even touched down in the country yet and his neck was already sore.

Master Tung had warned him that the Japanese bowed for almost everything and that if he was ever confused or didn't understand anything he should just bow. Andy had accepted this advice and not thought much of it. But after nodding every time an attendant offered him a drink or peanuts he was already sick of the motion and he wondered how he was ever going to survive the next ten years.

…

Andy bowed to the flight attendants yet again as he exited the plain. They were bowing to and thanking all the passengers as they exited. He felt so awkward bending at the waist while balancing his carry-on over his shoulder and muttering a timid "Arigatou" in an awkward American accent.

They giggled after he passed saying "Otoko wa kawaii desu ne?"

"Deshou!" Replied her friend, and the two giggled softly behind their hands.

Andy tried best not to pay attention as he stepped out of the gate. He didn't understand a word they had said, for all he knew they could be discussing anything between theoretical astrophysics to the last episode of Fraggle Rock.

Master Shiranui's letter had said that one of his friends would be here to pick him up. Andy furiously hoped the man spoke English, otherwise he didn't know what he would do.

The boy cast about for any sign that one of the people gathered gather to meet their loved ones at the gate was there for him. Several people held back from the main crowd holding signs, which he assumed bore the names of passengers they were there to pick-up. He scanned the signs, admiring the intricate yet indecipherable characters that were scribbled across them. Japanese really was a beautiful, if a little incomprehensible, language.

Andy was about to turn away from the sign bearing lot and find a seat to wait in until this Yamada Jubei arrived when some one new came jogging up to the gate as if in fear of being late. He was the oddest thing Andy had ever seen, dressed not in normal modern casual wear like most everyone else or even in one of the neat black suits worn by the waiting chauffeurs, this man was dressed in a light cotton robe with a second, shorter red vest-like robe over that, white 'flooded' pants that showed his boney ankles and was heal up with a black sash and sandals that were practically just two blocks of wood strapped to each foot.

The man reached a hand into the folds of his robe and withdrew a piece of folded paper and unfolded it and held the sign aloft. Andy flabbergasted to see the words "Bogardo Andy" written across it.

Assuming that this must be Yamada Jubei, Andy approached the odd looking fellow. "There's only one O in 'Bogard'." He said.

"Andy-chan desu ka?" The man asked.

His own name being the only recognizable word in that sentence Andy simply bowed, taking Master Tung's advice. When in doubt, just bow.

The man regarded him quizzically for a moment before asking, "Nihongo ga dekimasu ka?"

Once again not understanding, Andy blinked up in confusion. "I'm sorry?" He said in English.

"English for now, then." The man said. His words were heavily accented so that it sounded more like 'Engrish foru nao, sthen.' Under any other circumstances, hearing his own language being botched so thoroughly would have made him snort with laughter. At the moment, however, he was just glad that he could at least somewhat communicate with someone.

"I'm Yamada Jubei. Hanzo-kun sent me here to pick you up." He held out a hand, offering to take Andy's carry-on. The boy extended the backpack gratefully. "Did you have any checked bags?"

"No." Andy replied. "That's it."

Even after Jeff had adopted him and Terry, Andy had shied away from accumulating possessions. He rarely had gotten to take them with him when moving from foster home to foster home, taking only what he could fit in the black plastic bag they provided for him. Jeff had sometimes worried about his aversion to forming attachments to objects, but then again, Jeff just seemed to worry about him and Terry in general.

After Jeff's death, Andy didn't see a point in bringing anything that wasn't absolutely necessary with him to Japan. His purpose in coming here was to learn the skills he would need to avenge his father's death, toys and amusements would only distract him from that goal.

"This is it?" Jubei examined the bag critically and tested its weight. "Well, after we get you settled we'll see if we can't hook you up."

Not knowing how to respond to that, Andy just bowed again and said nothing.

…

After a short cab ride and long subway ride Andy and Yamada Jubei were finally on a train heading from Tokyo to Niigata province. The boy watched out the window as the dense buildings of Tokyo city melted away to more sparse rural residences that seemed to have been taken from another time all together.

As the train sped farther north, climbing the mountains as it went the houses seemed to disappear, as did almost all signs of human habitation. After a while Andy lost interest in what was outside and slumped back in his seat. His flight had arrived fairly early in the morning local time but he was still on American Eastern Standard time so while it was just a little after six in the morning for Jubei it was still five in the afternoon yesterday for Andy.

"How was your flight?" Jubei asked in an awkward attempt to make conversation.

"Fine." Andy didn't feel much like talking. He was tired, was in a strange land far from home with nothing familiar to draw comfort from and he really needed comfort right now.

His mind wandered to Jeff and little thing that he hadn't noticed much while he was alive. How he would heat a glass of milk whenever one of them couldn't sleep, how he would sit at their bedsides and tell them stories about his own youth and how he had had to grow up alone. One might think it wasn't quite appropriate for a parent to share depressing childhood experiences as bedtime stories, but Andy had always found it comforting that he could relate to Jeff through their similar experiences.

Before he and Terry had decided to take their chances on the streets they were mostly alone. The System was constantly moving them from one foster home to another (mostly for problems of fighting, either at home or at school), few foster parents wanted to take them for very long and none wanted to take the both of them together.

So, he and Terry were split up and sent to separate homes (sometimes on opposite sides of town). Sometimes they got to see each other in school, but usually not, sometimes the foster families were nice and sometimes not. But every time Andy started getting used to a place, getting comfortable with a family, something would always happen to mess it all up.

Whether it was a fight on the play-yard, or a disagreement at home (either with another child or a parent) it seemed he was always the one at fault because he was the "difficult" child. Finally, there came a point where he just stopped trying. H wouldn't attempt to get to know a family, he wouldn't make an effort to fit in or get attached to any one. What was the point when they would just send him to another house in a few months?

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

That was his motto. Every time he was sent away he felt hurt or betrayed, when he stopped trying he stopped caring and that worked for him. And when Terry came knocking on his bedroom window one night he was easily willing to run away.

The two had found shelter in an abandoned warehouse in South Town's industrial district. It seemed to be a favored home for the dregs of human society. Andy and Terry shared a space with addicts and the insane along with a few other children whom had run away, abandoning the Foster Care System to try their chances on the streets.

It was around that time that Terry had run headlong into Jeff. Andy remembered the day quite clearly because they were actually trying to pick-pocket him. He and Terry had gotten a pretty good act down together. He would run on ahead and pass by the intended target without bothering him or her. Then Terry would come running after his "annoying little brother" and accidentally bump into the person in question. And if that person's wallet just happened to fall into Terry's hand, well, that wasn't his fault. He was just a kid, what did he know?

It had worked great! That was until Jeffry Bogard had tracked them back to their warehouse home and politely asked for his wallet back. A cold stone of dread had sunk into Andy's stomach. If this man turned them in they would be put back into to System, or worse, sent to a "correctional" facility.

Terry's thoughts must have been echoing his own because he, without hesitating, offered the wallet back with no protest or drama, only the request that Jeff not hand them over to the "authorities".

The man had accepted the terms and, after checking to make sure he still had his credit card and ID (the cash was long since gone) had offered to treat them to a meal.

Andy and Terry both had been suspicious, normal adults didn't do nice or charitable thing for you right after you rob them. But they were hungry and even though they had spent the cash on candies and soda they weren't anywhere near satisfied.

The adoption hadn't occurred immediately after that. In fact, it wasn't until several month after that fateful lunch that Jeff had come to their squalid warehouse and told them that if they wanted to they could come live with him and his teacher.

They had had a relatively happy home life; it was certainly better than anything Andy had experienced in the System. The four of them fell into the traditional rolls of family quite easily with Tung Fu Rue filling the position of the eccentric grandfather, Jeff as the dotting father that was powerless to the whims of his children, Terry the eldest son that could do no wrong and he, Andy, the youngest child out to prove himself. It was "The Wonder Years – South Town edition" (only slightly less cheesy, no wait, it was twice as cheesy).

But then Jeff died and Andy's happy home was shattered. That was what he got for growing accustomed to his situation, from loving a life or just loving a person. In the end you always got hurt.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

But he wouldn't let that happen this time. He was here on a mission; he was here with a purpose. To form attachments to the people here would just create distractions. He would train, he would learn and he would grow but he would not love. Love was unnecessary for a life devoted to revenge.

"Andy-chan." Yamada Jubei's voice cut into his thoughts. "We just left Gumma and are entering Niigata now. We should be arriving in Nagaoka very soon."

…

Nagaoka Station had once been the site of Hori Naoyori's castle back in then Edo Period and Andy had to marvel at the imposing architecture. South Town had tried to make their public transportation look respectable but always just seemed to succeed in being dirty.

Jubei led him out of the station where he hailed a cab. The two climbed in and after Yamada instructed the driver in Japanese that was to fast for Andy to even catch, let alone understand, they were once again on their way.

The cab took them out of Nagaoka, passing through Sanjo to the east in the direction of the Higashiyama mountain ranges. Just outside of Sanjo city limits was the independent town of Mino. Mino could be described as the Japanese equivalent to the American "small town" where everyone knows everyone.

The cab driver let them off in front of, for all Andy could tell, a ridiculously steep set of stairs. There was a tall oval shaped bolder standing erect next to said flight of stairs with three bold looking characters expertly chiseled into it, no doubt informing people what the place was, but Andy couldn't read them.

"It says 'Shiranui'." Jubei informed him after paying the cabby.

Andy gave the stone another look, examining the characters to see if he could read their meaning not that he knew what it said but they remained horribly abstract and unyielding to his mind.

"You'll learn quick enough." The old man insisted. Then he clapped Andy on the shoulder and, indicating the stairs said, "Well, hop to it!"

…

The climb up the impossibly tall and ridiculously steep stairs left Andy tired, breathless and ready to collapse. This had to be some form of child cruelty, to make a bereaved nine-year-old trudge up that mountain of stairs… Andy was very much missing the old, unreliable death trap of an elevator from the building he lived in with Jeff right now.

"Now, wasn't that refreshing?" Jubei came up beside him, jogging in place and carrying Andy's travel bag over his shoulder, over flowing with spry energy. "Nothing like a bit of exercise after sitting down all day."

The boy gave a noncommittal noise as response. How was it that this old man had more energy than he did after all that?

"Don't worry, kiddo, we'll work-up your stamina." He clapped Andy on the shoulder again. "You should see Hanzo's little granddaughter, she's a real spit-fire, already running rings around the rest of us old men. She's about your age; you'll hate her! …Knowing kids your age."

Most of this just went in one ear and out the other. Between Jubei's heavy accent and the fact that Andy didn't care about Shiranui Hanzo's extended family he found it easier to just tune the man out.

The stairs opened out onto a white stone courtyard bordered, along the left and right sides, by petite ginko trees will taller evergreens looming behind but otherwise was baren. Andy was lead down the center of the yard to a double-doored gate twice as high as a man was tall and immensely intimidating to a nine-year-old child whom was only four foot three (129.5 cm). Jubei eased this gate open and the two slipped inside.

The inner courtyard was far lovelier and more inviting that the outer with a small stream running through it that pooled into a small pond before continuing back out through an arched whole at the bottom of the wall. The sound of the water running over the rocks was enchanting. Its hypnotic effect combined with the large boulders and miniature trees surrounding the pond made Andy feel like a giant in a fairyland.

"This way." Jubei lead him over a small step bridge that crossed the stream where it fed the pond.

Jubei slid, what Andy assumed was the front door, open and called into the house, "Ojama shimasu."

Another voice called back in answer, Andy did couldn't hear it to distinctly, but it sounded somewhat like the way Jeff would say "C'mon in" to visitors.

"Shoes." Jubei said as they entered.

"What?" Andy blinked in utter confusion.

"Take off your shoes." As he said this the old man slipped his feet from his wooden sandals and laid them out so that he could easily slip them back onto his feet when he left.

"Oh." The boy sat on the ground and immediately started untying the laces of his sneakers. It this was something he was going to be doing everyday for the next ten years he should get some different shoes, something that would slip on and off as easily as Yamada Jubei's had.

A man came to greet them in the entranceway. He was about a head taller than Jubei with the slender build of a fighter whom prized speed over strength but he had te air of one whom rarely engaged in actual combat.

"Ah, Yamada-kun." He smiled welcomingly.

"Kazu-kun, is Hanzo still out?" Jubei asked this in Japanese, but this author feels obliged to translate for you.

The man nodded. "Unfortunately, yes." His eyes then fell on Andy whom was struggling with his second shoe. He knelt down in front of the boy and said in English, "And you must be Andy Bogard. I have a daughter about your age."

"You're English is really good!" Andy exclaimed, happy to have someone he now had someone he could communicate with more easily.

"Thank you." Kazu accepted the compliment modestly. "I studied a semester in Boston before earning my Associates Degree. I'm Shiranui Kazutaka, Shiranui Hanzo is my father."

"Are you a martial arts master, too?" Asked the boy.

"Goodness no!" Kazutaka laughed. "I'm just a waste of space."

"Kazu-kun, why don't you show the boy to his room?" Jubei suggested. "This old man is going to help himself to some of that spiced sake you have."

Kazutaka made a face. "Don't drink too much before Chichi-ue arrives." Then to Andy, "C'mon, kiddo, lets get you settled."

…

Some time later, Andy had unpacked his travel bag, showered and changed. He now only had to wait for Shiranui Hanzo's return from wherever he was. The boy was anxious to meet his new master and begin his training as a ninja as soon as possible. He wandered the halls and grounds of the Shiranui dojo in an attempt to pass the time, familiarizing himself with the place that would become his home for the next ten years.

After seeing the beauty of the garden in the inner courtyard, Andy had expected to find something just as grand around the back of the building but was pleasantly surprised to find, not a garden but a training field. Unpaved earth stretched out from the back porch to the far tree line that ran the length of the property. To one side human shaped dummies had been fashioned out of straw and stood mounted on polls, awaiting attack. On the opposite side of the field a spacious circle had been outlined in powdered chalk. Andy assumed it was for sparring, but at the moment was instead occupied by a single solitary person.

A girl, about his own age, with long dark hair was twirling about, gesturing with a white paper folding fan. Andy couldn't tell if she was dancing or practicing martial forms in such a way that it looked like a dance. Curious, he walked up to her.

"Hi." He said, breaking the girl's concentration and startling her.

"Kyaaah!" She exclaimed and brought her fan down hard on his head, much harder than a normal paper fan should have been able to withstand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Niigata, Gumma, Nagaoka, Sanjo and the Higashiyama mountain range are all real places. Mino (to the best of my knowlage) is not.


	2. Settling In

Shiranui Hanzo arrived home latter that evening to find his granddaughter curled up in a corner of the sitting room on a time out, a common occurrence in the Shiranui household.

"What'd you do this time, kitten?" He asked.

Mai gazed up at her grandfather, her eyes welling up with tears. "Ojisama!" She latched onto his leg and cried into the material of his hakama. "I think I killed him! I didn't mean to, he snuck up on me and I hit him and he fell!"

"Who?" Hanzo asked, unable to think of anyone he knew that could be KOed by an eight-year-old girl.

"The hakujin that 'Touchan says is going to be living here from now on."

That was right! Today was the day that Jeff Bogard's son Andy was supposed to be arriving from America. So Jubei had already arrived with the boy and the first thing that Mai had to go and do was beat the poor bereaved boy up.

"I'm sure he's not dead." The old ninja assured his granddaughter, picking her up so that he could look eye to eye with her. "Why don't we go look for him together, then you can apologize."

The little ninja-in-training nodded and latched on to her grandfather. Hanzo balanced the child on his hip with his arm and set off to find either Jubei or Kazutaka.

…

"Don't fall asleep!" Kazutaka slammed a wooden fan down on the floor making a loud thwak! sound to punctuate his command. "You have a concussion, are you so anxious to see your father again?"

Andy's head snapped back up, the ice pack that now sat atop his crown of golden hair teetered precariously. "I can't." The boy said, one hand reaching up to steady his ice pack. "Not before I avenge his death."

"It's a noble goal," Kazutaka began, "but you're a bit young to be thinking of revenge. You're, what, ten?"

"Nine." The boy corrected.

"Nine. You're young. I know you're hurting now, but you have your whole life ahead of you. Do you really want to spend it consumed by thoughts of revenge?"

The boy glared at him. "My dad was murdered out on the open street in broad daylight and no one did anything. If my brother and I don't bring his killer to justice, who will?"

"Children shouldn't have to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders." Kazutaka insisted.

"Leave him be, Kazu." Hanzo had just entered the room with Mai in his arms and Jubei following behind.

"Chichi-ue."

"Ah, you're alive!" Mai jumped down from her grandfather's arms and rushed to the foreign fighter's side. "I'm so glad! I'm sorry I hit you. But you surprised me I don't know you and you're so pale and you're hairs so light that I thought that you were an Oni from the mountains or a youkai or another one of those creatures that they always tell us kids to be carful of! And you really shouldn't go around sneaking up on people! What if I had killed you? What would you tell Enma-sama to get into heaven? 'Sorry, I was hit by a girl'?"

She said all of this very fast and, of course, in Japanese and so Andy had no idea what she was saying.

"Um, what?"

"She said she's sorry." Hanzo translated and paraphrased for him. "So you're Jeff's son." He stood, arms crossed, apprising the boy that sat before him.

"One of them, yeah." Andy said meekly. He didn't know why but the imposing form of Shiranui Hanzo was very intimidating. "My big brother wanted to train somewhere else… so that our styles would be different."

"Smart." Jubei commented to Hanzo. "So that when they confront this Geese Howard person together he'd have to adjust to defending against two different techniques. Not a bad plan."

Hanzo nodded then turning his attention to Kazutaka he said, "Kazu, go do something with your daughter for a while."

Kazutaka obediently stood and, taking Mai by the hand, pulled her away from the fascinating foreign fighter that she was threatening to start fawning over (his shiny blond hair was quite fascinating, after all).

Andy heaved a sigh of relief when the girl was out of the room. When he had first seen her he had been fascinated by the grace of her technique, but now, after experiencing her company he furiously hoped that he wouldn't have to spend much time around her during these next ten years. The house was big, they should be able to avoid each other easily… right?

Hanzo and Jubei both sat down across from him. "Are you badly injured?"

"Its just a bump." The boy insisted. "Kazutaka-sama thinks that it's worse than it is."

"Kazutaka… sama?" Hanzo raised one quizzical eyebrow.

Andy blushed sheepishly. Master Tung had given him a brief lecture on Japanese honorifics before leaving and that he should never say a person's name without one. He had, however, forgotten most of which ones were appropriate for which situations, relationships or status.

"Oh, he'll love that." Jubei chuckled.

"I'm sorry." Andy said, thinking he had accidentally insulted his host. He didn't know what he would do if Hanzo became angry with him and sent him back home with not so much as a day of training beneath his belt to show for all the trouble this was.

"Don't be." Hanzo laughed. "It'll be something I can tease him about." Then his demeanor changed and he became more serious, business like. "Now, tell me, how much training did Tung give you before your father passed away?"

"I was taught various stances and some basic forms." The boy dutifully answered. "We were about to begin lessons in balance before… um, we were about to begin the balance lessons." He finished somewhat subdued.

"Hmm…"

"He's very behind." Jubei whispered in the Shiranui master's ear.

"He hasn't had the luxury of being trained since birth as we have." Hanzo reminded his friend and colleague.

"Well, puppy, you're going to have to work hard if you want to train here." Hanzo announced. "I don't suffer slackers here and if you want to be ready to avenge your father's death ten years from now you can't afford to slack off."

"I know." The boy said.

"This summer we'll pick up where Tung left off." The old ninja continued. "You will practice and you will learn until everything is second nature to you. Since you will be here for a decade, you will apply for citizenship. In the Fall you will attend school with Mai-chan. That is not a excuse for you to neglect your tarining, however. I demand nothing but the best from my students and you will give me nothing but your very best! Is this understood?"

"Yes, sir." The boy bowed low, touching his forehead to the floor and sending a lance of pain through his skull to remind him of his earlier incident with the girl, Mai-chan.

"One more thing." Hanzo added. "If you're going to live here, you had best learn the language. This is the last time we will speak English in my house. I suggest you learn quickly."

"Yes, sir."

"'Hai, Sensei'." Jubei corrected. "You will address Hanzo-kun and myself as 'sensei'. When you understand what we've told you, you will say 'hai'. When you don't understand you will say 'wakarimasen'. Do you understand?"

"Hai, Sensei." The boy nodded.

…

Hanzo-sensei had made good on his promise to accept nothing but the best from Andy. He was expected to rise on his own just before dawn and report for calisthenics with Mai and Kazutaka as instructor. If, for whatever reason, he failed to wake and be ready on his own then Hanzo-sensei would come and drag him out by the ankles and throw him in the garden pond, startling the fish and covering Andy in the algae and slime that grew there.

After calisthenics they would all sit together for a simple breakfast of rice and miso. During this time both Hanzo as well as Kazutaka would quiz him on what Japanese he had learned, occasionally giving praise when he mastered an irregular verb but mostly just correcting what he said wrong.

After breakfast Mai went to train with her father while Hanzo-sensei worked with Andy to improve his balance. The old ninja would place a bowl of water on his head and give Andy the simple instruction of "Do not let a single drop fall."

It sounded easy enough. But the bowl was completely rounded on the bottom with no foot to steady it on a level surface, let alone Andy's round golden head. More often than not his master would return to find the bowl upturned on the ground with Andy looking sheepish and shamefaced with his white shirt soaked through with the water.

After a few days of this, Hanzo changed his tactics. Taking Andy into the mountains behind the dojo to a strait in the river where the water flowed fastest. The old ninja set a small wooden raft in the water, anchored to the bank by a rope tied to a stake driven into the soil. Hanzo then instructed Andy to stand on the raft in the water and simply "Try not to get wet."

A few days after this, Andy started training in swimming trunks.

Lunch was usually onigiri (rice balls) served with freshly sliced fruit. Hanzo preferred to eat outside during the summer and as the head of the household his word was law. And so, Hanzo, Kazutaka and Mai would eat under the shade of the porch by the garden while Andy sat out in the sun in an attempt to dry himself (this was a difficult feat when one considered Japan's humid summers), and Hanzo would shout bits of conversation to him from across the courtyard to keep him in almost constant language practice.

After lunch Mai was given some free time to do as she please while Andy was marched inside to hit the books and cram as much hiragana into his brain as he possibly could. He would be attending school one year ahead of Mai come the fall, yet he was worlds behind.

By his age most Japanese children were expected to know both their Hiragana as well as Katakana and a few of the most basic and/or common Kanji (such as the numbers, days of the week and their own names). But it was all lines and gibberish to Andy. "Sa" looked just like "ki" and as far as he could tell "re", "ne" and "wa" were the same damn character.

He was always overjoyed when he was called away from his toils over the writing systems for dinner. Dinner it seemed was the only time meat of any sort ever appeared on the table. The main course was always rice but served over it would be a few slices of beef, pork, chicken or fish.

Andy also loved dinner because it was the only meal where Hanzo or Kazutaka didn't grill him on his studies, be it his martial arts or his Japanese. Instead, Mai took center stage, engaging her father's and grandfather's attention fully with stories of what she and her friends had done while Andy was slaving over his books. How exited she was over the up coming school year and other common concerns of a girl her age. Hanzo and Kazu would listen with polite indifference while the little girl happily chattered away.

Thus, Andy's first summer in Japan was passed.

…

Late in August Kazutaka took Andy and Mai out to buy new uniforms for school. Mai fit into the navy-blue sailor suits easily with the only hassle being a disagreement over the length of the skirt. Mai wanted to have her skirts hemmed above the knees "just like the big girls", Kazutaka wanted her skirts to cover all the way down to her ankles. The sales woman smiled sweetly at their antics and offered Kazu some advanced sympathy for when the girl entered high school and her skirt length became the least of his worries.

Andy, however, had a bit more trouble finding a uniform that fit. Due to his martial arts training he was overly muscular for a nine-year-old and neither he nor Kazutaka could find a black button-up coat that could fit his broad shoulders without having extra material that billowed around his stomach. In the end Kazu decided it was best to just buy the closest fit and sew it into a better fit at home.

…

The first day at a new school… Andy liked to think that he was used to them by now. Back in South Town, every time the foster agency sent him to a new home that family would enroll him in a new school. After he and Terry had run away they stopped going to school. After Jeff had adopted them they had had another "first day at a new school". And now here he was again at yet another new school having to suffer through yet another first day. It seemed that Andy had had more first days than actual days of schooling.

But this time it wasn't just another depressingly underfunded public school, it was a surprisingly well funded public school in a foreign country half way across the world where they taught in a language that he was only just barely starting to master. He wished feverently for something familiar that he could latch onto, something he could draw comfort from like he and Terry had comforted each other back on the streets. Sometimes it felt like the wild streets of the concrete jungle were safer than the ordered play-yard with its hierarchal structure of bullies and submissives.

Andy had long since learned to deal with bullies back in South Town (both the child kind as well as the adult kind). You don't survive long on the streets without growing some balls as well as brains, at the last school he had attended with Terry, the school Jeff had enrolled them in he had been closer to the top of the play-yard hierarchy, most of the big bullies left him and Terry alone but neither of them ever had to stoop to the same level to get their space. Here, however, Andy feared that he was already on the bottom rung with little to no way of climbing up.

Back home he was looked upon as different by the other kids because he was an orphan, he didn't have parents of his own, he borrowed them. Here he was different because he was foreign, the other children all looked so alike with their ebony hair and dark eyes while he stood out like a lamp post on a dark street with his golden blond hair, alabaster skin and pale blue eyes. Add that to the fact that he was still learning to speak the language and couldn't write it to save his life and you had the perfect recipe for ostracizeation and ridicule.

The teachers were nice enough, very understanding and patient with his lack of knowledge and understanding. One of them, after learning that he was a ward of the Shiranui family, had even offered a way to combine his martial arts training with his studies of the written language and he promised to pass the suggestion on to Hanzo-sensei.

He was one year ahead of Mai and so, naturally, didn't share any classes with the overly peppy ninja girl but she was the only person he knew there and so he developed a habit of sitting close to her at lunch, if for no other reason than she was more familiar to him than anything else in this school. So long as he was outside of the Shiranui dojo she was his anchor, she kept him sane. She, of course, had no idea of this.

"Don't walk so close to me." She said one day on their way home.

"Sumimasen." He apologized and stepped to the opposite side of the sidewalk from her. There was now enough space between them to fit a whole other person and a half.

"People are gonna get the wrong idea about us." She continued. "You always eat with me and my friends. Don't you have any of your own? In your own year? And you always walk so close to me on the way home?"

"We live in the same house." He reminded her, perplexed by this sudden burst of conversation and the seemingly random subject matter. They usually walked in disinterested silence together, neither one really having anything to say to the other. Andy was fine with this, he found he to be a bit irritating at the best of times and downright insufferable at the worst of times.

"But you can avoid me just fine when were at home. Why do you have to give me your boy-cooties at school where people can see?" Her lips formed into a pout that would have been cute had they been of an age when Andy could appreciate a good feminine pout. "Do you like me or something?"

"No!" He said quickly, his mind jumping back to their first meeting and his embarrassing knock-out by a fan.

"Then stay one hundred and fifty centimeters away from me when we're in school from now on. Ya got that? One hundred and fifty centimeters." She commanded imperiously.

Andy paused. Up until this point she had been apathetic to his presence at her table during lunch. What had happened to change that? Her friends all knew that he was living at the Shiranui dojo with her but that shouldn't be that big of a deal. He had grown used to her presence at school and had drawn comfort from her familiarity, obnoxious as indefatigable personality was. He didn't want to louse his security blanket just yet.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.' He reminded himself of his old motto. It was better to distance himself from her now before he became to dependant on her for comfort. He would eventually leave to go back to America and she would most likely stay here.

"Um… so, how much is that in feet or inches?" He asked.

"I don't know. Just don't sit next to me at lunch and don't walk so close to me on the way to or from school."

"Fine." Andy was about to inquire further as to what brought this on so suddenly. If someone had said something to her, maybe teased her about him but then reminded himself that he was detaching and shouldn't care. Her friends were her concern, doing well and not disappointing Hanzo-sensei's high standards was his concern, he didn't have time to waste worrying about a girl he didn't even like.

…

Hanzo was very impressed with Andy's teacher's idea of combining his training with his studies. There was an old way of grappling practice used in China where two opponents would face off atop a field of solid wood polls as their fighting stage, the first fighter to fall lost.

Hanzo altered this by writing one character on the top of each poll in chalk ordered Andy to hop from poll to poll in the order that he called out the characters. This was a great way of not just improving his reading skills but his speed, agility and balance as well. (The old ninja made a mental note to send that particular teacher a large gift basket next Teacher Appreciation Day.)

After a little over a week of training like this Andy had completely mastered his Hiragana and Katakana and Hanzo-sensei erased the simple phonetic characters and replaced them with a selection from the 1,945 Joyo-Kanji. This exasperated Andy to no end because some of the characters ha more than one name or the same name as another Kanji and now, every time he got one wrong Hanzo-sensei demanded that they start over from the beginning.

"Sen!" Hanzo shouted.

Andy gracefully hopped from the "Mei" poll on which he was now balancing and landed, teetering slightly, on another poll a few feet away marked with the Kanji for "kawa" or "river".

"No." Hanzo shook his head. "Start again."

"But-" Andy caught himself before he could say that they'd already been going at this for an hour. Hanzo-sensei would just remind him that he would never avenge his father's death if he didn't practice and this was still martial arts practice as much as it was writing. "Perhaps if you specified if you wanted the number Sen or the river Senor the future Sen, Sensei."

"Oh?" Hanzo raised one quizzical eyebrow. "If that is the problem then why don't you just ask me which I want before you leap?"

"I…" The boy paused. In all honesty the thought of asking hadn't even crossed his mind. The point of the exercise was to improve speed and balance, how would his speed improve if he was constantly pausing to ask questions? "I hadn't thought of that, Sensei."

"Let's try this one more time, then." The old ninja smiled.

The boy nodded.

"Sui!"

Andy jumped from the river pole on which he stood to the one marked with the character for water.

"Do!"

From water to earth…

"Ichi!"

…From earth to the number one…

"Ji!"

…From number one to… Andy paused just before he jumped to the pole marked with the character for ear and asked, "Ji ear, Ji self, Ji affair, Ji temple or Ji time, Sensei?"

The old ninja smiled wickedly. "The number ten."

"But the number then is Ju, Sensei."

Andy's quibble did nothing to diminish his master's smile. "Well, then, I guess we'll just have to study a bit harder and come back tomorrow then, won't we." By 'we' he, of course, meant Andy. "Go inside and get cleaned up for dinner."

The boy did as he was told but paused at the porch. "Sensei?" he began.

"Hm?"

"If the point of this exercise if to increase my speed, why tell me to stop and ask? Why not just tell me right off?"

"You always leap without looking?" The old master shot back.

"No." Back in South Town on the streets before life with Jeff, jumping into a situation before you knew what you were getting yourself into most often got you killed. Neither he nor Terry survived by being reckless.

"Then don't start now. All the training in the world won't be worth squat if you rush in against a stronger opponent without thinking."

Andy thought about that for a moment. "But if you had all the training in the world you could beat anything no matter what."

"No matter how good you get, there will always be someone stronger than you." Hanzo reminded him. "Don't let your training or a few successes go to your head."

Andy stared at the old ninja for a moment longer. He had sounded so much like Jeff when he said that, so much like his dad when he would take him and Terry to the park and show them the basic forms while explaining his own code of honor and rules to live by. He missed him, at that moment Andy really missed him, he wanted nothing more than to just be hugged by his dad. But his dad was gone, murdered by Geese Howard.

He looked back at the field of polls silhouetted against the evening sky. He knew exactly what he was getting into by planning revenge on his father's killer. He was no stranger to the cruelties of adults and knew what happened when combined a cruel heart with the strength to hurt others. He would kill Geese Howard and he would avenge his father's murder. He knew exactly what he was getting into.

Hanzo placed a comforting hand on his pupil's shoulder. "C'mon, puppy, we better get some food in you before bed, it's a school night."


	3. New Years

Time passed, Andy got better; his balance and agility improved along with his reading skills and Hanzo began working on his stamina. Fall had long since faded into Winter, the days had grown shorter, the nights longer and the weather generally colder, and the little village of Mino was now covered by a blanket of fluffy white snow.

The morning calisthenics had been replaced with cardiovascular; Hanzo-sensei would drag everyone in the household out into the frigid morning air before dawn and make them run laps around town. Mino was a relatively small village and after a few weeks of this Andy became familiar with the town's early risers. They would wave as the party passed, sometimes offering a polite greeting to Hanzo or commenting on how tall Mai-chan was getting.

Andy found it a bit strange that no one ever seemed to greet Kazutaka with as much open friendliness as they did his father. The boy was curious to know why, but he reminded himself that that wasn't why he was here. His purpose in coming to Niigata was to learn the skills he'd need to kill Geese Howard, getting overly involved with the Shiranui family would hinder that goal. Kazu, for his part seemed not to care and if he didn't care then it wasn't important.

School had been released for the New Years, much to Andy's great relief. The children of Mino Public Elementary School had finally gotten it into their heads that the strange new hakujin who never talked to anyone and always sat alone at lunch wasn't going anywhere. And so they had begun to, in lieu of taunting, to treat Andy with a sort of polite neglect. He didn't bother any of them and so none of them felt the need or even the desire to bother him. All the same, the blond ninja-in-training was more that happy for the break from school.

He waltzed into the kitchen one day after yet another rigorous session with Hanzo-sensei to find Kazutaka mixing ground chestnuts in with mashed sweet potatoes. Andy knew that Mai's dad was, for a intents and purposes, the "mom" of the family, that he did most of the cleaning and prepared all their meals but he'd never actually seen him doing it before.

"What're you making?"

"Osechi-ryori." Kazu replied matter-of-factly then looked up. "You're not allergic to nuts, are you?"

"No." Andy shook his head at the seemingly random question.

"Good."

The boy walked over the to refrigerator and pulled out a cherry flavored soda. "What's for lunch?" He asked, popping the bottle's top off.

"Free rain today." Kazu responded as he put the finishing touches on the mashed sweet potato and moved over to the stove where a pot was simmering with who knew what in it.

"What's all this for?" He indicted everything that Kazu was making which looked like the beginnings of a small feast.

"This is for New Years." He said in a slightly subdued tone, as if the New Year's celebration were something unpleasant for him.

Andy just shrugged and went back into the fridge for something more substantial than a soda. He pulled out some of the left over natto and rice from breakfast. He was just about to enter the dinning room and eat when Mai came bouncing into the kitchen, almost knocking into him in the doorway.

"Watch where you're going." She scolded.

"You bumped into me." He shot back.

"Ah, kurikinton!" She exclaimed happily, looking over his shoulder and ignoring his statement entirely. She pushed past him and slunk up to the bowl of mashed sweet potato and chestnuts that Kazu had left out on the counter covered by a paper towel.

"Don't even think about it, little missy." Kazu warned, his back still turned. Mai froze in mid slink. "Why don't you go and eat with Andy-kun? I'm sure he'll enjoy the company and you two can talk or kill each other in the dinning room away from burning stoves or boiling liquids."

Andy swallowed the protest that rose in the back of this throat. He did not enjoy Mai's company one bit, he only tolerated her because she was his master's granddaughter and he had no other choice. He had been quite successful in avoiding her here at the dojo for the past few months, why did Kazutaka have to go and mess that up?

"But, 'Touchan…" The girl protested.

"Out. Now." He ordered in that tone of authority adults used that left no room for argument.

The two sat at the dining room table, Mai folding her legs under her daintily, Andy sitting cross-legged. He divided the rice and natto between the two of them, saying nothing, hoping she would take the hint that he didn't want to socialize with her here at home just as much as she didn't want to associate with him in school.

"'Touchan always gets snappy around New Years." The girl muttered. Apparently, Andy's hint was just a little to subtle for her. "Neh, Andy-kun, what did your family do on new years?"

Andy bit back the immediate retort of "Which family?" He had had quite a few in the System, but he knew that she was most likely referring to Jeff, his real family. His mind conjured the memory of only New Years he'd had while in Jeff's care. It wasn't a whole scene, just images really. Sparkling gold bubbles rising to the top of a Martinellie's cider, he and Terry begging to be aloud to stay up until midnight, Jeff and his lady friend whispering and laughing together in a corner, Master Tung singing some Mandarin folk song neither he nor Terry understood and he and Terry falling asleep before eleven.

"We'd have a party." He finally gave his clip of an answer.

"What kind of party?" She pressed. "Was it fun? Well, of course it was. Ojisama, 'Touchan and I have a small little party here but its just the three of us and not very fun, then 'Touchan takes me to visit my Okasama's grave and that's not very fun either but after that I get an otoshidama so its not so bad." She finished happily.

Andy didn't quite know what to say to all that so he just took another bite of natto as an excuse to keep from talking.

"Neh, Andy-kun?" She said again. "What was your dad like? Did he love your mom allot? 'Touchan loved my Okasama allot, that's why he doesn't like to fight like you and Ojisama. She was a pacifist."

"If he doesn't like to fight then why does he train you?" he knew that he really shouldn't be giving in to her bait but this was the first time he'd ever heard Mai talk about something that wasn't trivial like the length of her skirt or gossip at school.

"Because its something we can do together." She answered.

Andy thought about that a moment. Jeff had taught he and Terry martial arts as an outlet for their aggression and anger, to give then a way to vent their frustrations with the world that had treated them so unfairly. Looking back, he supposed that Jeff could have just as easily let Tung train them but he had chosen to do it himself, to spend time with them. That was one thing none of his foster parents ever did, just spend time with him for the sake of being together.

"So, did your dad love your mom?" She pressed, determined to not let him finish his meal in peace.

"I don't have a mom." He told her. "I don't have any parents."

"Huh?" She gapped in confusion. "Then who are you training to avenge?"

"Jeff Bogard was my dad but he wasn't my father. He adopted my brother and me but he's not our real father. I don't know who my real parents are, I never knew them." He said this so matter-of-factly, he was quite proud of himself for being able to detach from it so completely. He was getting better.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

"Andy-kun…" Her eyes watered.

'Great, now I've made her cry.' He thought upon seeing her hazel eyes glisten with unshed tears, tears that had no business being there in the first place. He watched in confusion as she stood and walked around the table then gasped in shock when she dropped back down to her knees and wrapped her arms around him in what was supposed to be a comforting hug.

"I'm sorry, Andy-kun." She muttered into his hair. "That must have been awful for you. I don't know what I'd do if I never knew 'Touchan."

'You wouldn't care because you would have never known him.' But he didn't say that out loud.

"Was Jeff-san a good dad?" She asked, still holding him. Andy wished she would let go. He only liked being hugged when he already wanted to be hugged, the rest of the time it just felt awkward, uncomfortable and wrong. Where was this hug of hers a few months ago, just after Kanji practice on the polls when all he wanted was to be hugged like Jeff used to? He would have been happy to be hugged then, not now, now he wanted his space.

"The best!" The boy said as he tried to push her away. To his chagrin she only tightened her hold on him. "Let me go."

"You need a hug." She protested.

"You've given me one. Now get off." He tried again to push her away, this time using a more force than the first time. Mai stumbled backwards and tumbled to the floor.

"Itai." She grumbled, running a hand over her shoulder where she had landed. "You don't have to push so hard, ya know. I was gonna let go."

"G-gomen na sai." He stammered out quickly. Jeff had always told him not to hit girls, that real men didn't use force against the distaff gender, that to do such was despicable. What would Jeff think of him now? An image of Jeffry Bogard looking sad and disappointed at him was conjured in him mind. Could Jeff see him right now? Was he watching from wherever good people went after they died? What would he say?

"Andy-kun, are you okay?" Mai waved a hand in front of his eyes. "You're so weird. You push me but some how you're the one who looks like they just got kicked in the stomach."

"Sumimasen." He stood and left, he needed to get away from her, needed to be alone with his thoughts.

"What a weird kid." She muttered after he had left.

…

Mai didn't see Andy for almost the entire rest of the day. He had barricaded himself in his room after lunch and hadn't set a foot outside since. Was he really so upset about being hugged? That was the only thing Mai could think of. He couldn't possibly be feeling bad about pushing her; he was training to become a ninja for crying out loud. What did he think ninja did? Serve tea and rice cakes all day?

No, he had to be upset over her touching him and that was something that struck Mai as just plain odd. Hugs were great, especially when you were feeling sad like he seemed to be almost all the time since he first came here. She knew his dad had just died before he came to live with them and he had every right to be sad, but to not accept comfort… that was just wrong.

But then again maybe he just didn't want to be hugged by her. He did spend allot of his time at home avoiding her like the plague. Maybe he just didn't like her. But that didn't make since either because during his first week of school he had clung to her like toddler clings to their blanky.

Mai huffed in annoyance. Boys were not supposed to be this hard to understand. Boys were supposed to like bugs and slime and violence with explosions and loud noises and boobies. They were not supposed to sit quietly by themselves, never talk to anyone and spend all their time training. And they were especially not supposed to dislike hugs.

"Mai-chan!" 'Touchan called to her from the kitchen. "Would you go tell Andy-chan that dinner's ready."

"Hai!" She called back. She pushed her thoughts aside for the moment and skipped off to the blond ninja-in-training's room. She knocked twice before calling "Ojama shimasu!" and entering without waiting for his response.

He was sitting on his futon, on top of the sheets, in lotus position. His breathing seemed shallow and even and he gave no sign that he was aware of her presence.

'Meditating.' She thought, crouching in front of him. "What a weird kid." She said aloud.

…

Andy was vaguely aware of a faint knocking sound on the peripheral edge of his consciousness. It was odd how when you were meditating everything that happened around you felt and sounded like it was reaching you over a great distance. Hanzo-sensei said that when he reached the deepest state of Zen trance he wouldn't notice the outside world at all and would be able to tap the deepest levels of his ki. It seemed Andy still needed more training before he could reach that level of meditation.

'Ojama shimasu…'

He only vaguely heard the words as he began to rise back out of his meditations. Andy opened his eyes and nearly fell backwards in shock at seeing Mai crouched in front of him, almost nose to nose with him.

"M-Mai-chan!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" 'Have you ever heard of personal-space!?'

"'Touchan says dinner's ready." She said in that obnoxiously happy tone that she almost always seemed to use. "This is your first New Years with us, I'm so exited. I finally have someone I can play fukuwarai and sugoroku with!"

She scampered off happily.

Andy gapped at her retreating back. He had just hurt her a few hours ago, shouldn't she be angry? Instead she was happy that he might play a few New Years games with her. What a weird girl.

Still, he had been summoned for dinner and so followed the bouncy, if a little ditzy, girl to the dinning room. Hanzo-sensei and Kazutaka sat at the dinning table with a card game spread out in front of them, the food was laid out on the table party style for you to nibble at through out the night. Mai skipped over to sit at the table, her legs folded under her politely.

"What's the next last card?" She asked happily then turned to him and said, "Andy-kun, come play with us!"

Obediently, Andy sat at the table and examined the cards spread out in front of him, the spread looked similar to the iroha-garuta card game that he would sometimes see other kids in school playing. The player would shuffle two decks of cards and lay on deck out on the desk face up, this one was called the "torifuda" or "grabbing cards". The second deck, know as the "yomifuda" ("reading cards"), was drawn from and read aloud. The players then had to grab the corresponding torifuda and the player that had collected the most cards by the game's end was the winner.

But at school Andy had only ever seen the kids play with cards marked by simple kana characters (either Hiragana or Katakana) and proverbs. The cards spread out on the dinning table now looked far to complicate for him.

"I think I'll just watch." He said.

Mai gave another one of those pouts that would have been very cute had Andy been of the age when men appreciated pouty looks from girls. "You're no fun."

"Don't pester the boy, kitten." Hanzo-sensei chided as he drew a card from the deck of yomifuda. He read what sounded like the first three lines of a tanka poem before Mai and Kazutaka pounced on the torifuda that were spread out before them in search of the card with the final two lines.

Mai snatched up a card with delicate calligraphy and cherry blossoms painted in the margins. "Ha!" She said and presented the card to her grandfather for inspection.

"Yep." The old master confirmed. "This round goes to Mai-chan. You're getting slow, Kazu."

Kazutaka grumbled something indignant that reminded Andy of when Master Tung would scold Jeff about something or another. In some ways these two men were allot like them and it made Andy just a little heartsick to be so reminded of his father and know that he would never see him again.

He buried his still tender grief with anger; it was all Geese Howard's fault. He would kill the man that had killed his father; he would bring him to justice. That was the whole reason he'd come here. Of course Hanzo and Kazutaka reminded him of Tung Fu Rue and Jeff, they were after all men of action whom had devoted their lives to martial arts.

Hanzo passed Mai's card back to her along with the yomifuda deck and the girl read the top card aloud. "Shirogane mo, kogane mo tama mo, nanisen ni…"

Kazutaka and Hanzo reached for the same card at the same time, both slapping their hands down on it hard, making the dishes rattle.

"Ha! Your powers are weak, old man." Kazu teased. His hand lay on the card with his fathers covering it. Kazu had gotten to the card first. "Now who's the slow one?" He took the card and added it to his pile. He seemed much more jovial than he had earlier today at lunchtime.

Andy watch them play a few more rounds, occasionally poking at the food but generally trying to stay out of everyone's way. The three of them all seemed so happy together, it reminded him of when he and Terry were living with Jeff and Tung and he found himself thinking that maybe this wouldn't be such a bad place to live. Maybe after he had avenged his father's death he could come back and… he cut that train of thought off right then and there.

No.

No, he would not get attached to this place or this family. After ten years had passed and he had learned all he could learn, trained all he could train and mastered all that he needed to master he would leave. He would return to America, he would kill Geese and he would never look back. He would not allow himself to grow to love this place or these people, especially not when he already knew that he was going to be leaving them.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

This place and these people were just stepping stones, nothing more.

…

At half an hour to midnight Hanzo-sensei asked Andy if he wanted to accompany him on Hatsumode, or the first trip to a shrine or temple of the New Year. After asking, however, he did that sneaky thing adults did when they're not really giving a kid a choice but want to make them think they are by adding that he was to young to stay at the dojo alone. With no other option available to him, Andy agreed and ten minuets later was struggling to put on a child size kimono that Hanzo had told him to wear.

It was just a robe; the act of putting on a robe should have been easy, it was the sash that made it difficult. Andy knew how to tie knots but every time he did, the wide material of the sash became bunched or curled in on itself letting the top of the robe fall open and expose his chest. Finally, Kazutaka had to come and help him.

"You'll learn." Kazu assured him when they were done, giving the boy a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Andy just grumbled non-committaly.

They parted ways at the foot of the stairs, Mai following her father and Hanzo taking Andy. He was about to ask why Kazu and Mai weren't coming with them when he remembered that she had mentioned something about visiting her mother's grave and he felt suddenly envious. Jeff's grave was all the way on the other side of the world; Andy wouldn't be able to visit his father's grave for the next ten years.

Hanzo took him to a small temple not far from the Shiranui dojo. There were lots of other people there all cheerful and happy. The greeted each other and wished one another a happy New Year and asked what everyone's plane were for the first day of the New Year.

Almost everyone greeted Hanzo-sensei, inquiring after Mai-chan and wishing her a happy birthday (which Andy was surprised to learn was January first). Andy had long since noticed that his master was a prominent figure in the community, though he couldn't imagine how. The man never seemed to leave the dojo accept on the morning jogs he made them all take.

After bowing and nodding to several well-wishers, Hanzo was finally able to steer them inside the temple proper. It was much quieter inside with nothing but a low thrumming sound that made little sound but seemed to make Andy's ribs vibrate. The air was sweet with inscents and that combined with the thrumming made him lightheaded.

The two knelt before a statue of the Enlightened One and Hanzo-sensei lit an inscent of his own, adding to the already pungent air. He bent his head low and brought his hands together in the posture of prayer.

Andy didn't quite know if he was supposed to do the same or not. He'd never really gotten the appeal of praying. He'd seen people do it, had been required to do it with one of his foster families. The mother of the family he'd been staying with at the time insisted that they all attend Mass every Sunday and so Andy went.

There he learned that all human beings were inherently evil and that the only way to be saved from eternal damnation was to repent, a process that included but was not limited to praying long hours every day, doing random acts of kindness, following the teaching of that book the Father always read from and giving mass sums of money to the Church (that last one hadn't made much sense to Andy).

He didn't know if Buddhism was any different but he didn't want to appear disrespectful and so he too bowed his head and brought his hands together. Even if he didn't follow the teachings he could at least mimic the motions.

He thought about Master Tung and how he sometimes would kneel before a similar statue and chant in a language Andy couldn't understand. Terry had asked Jeff about it one day and why he didn't do the same or why neither of them made he and Andy do it, all the foster parents they'd ever had had tried to integrate them into whatever belief structure they belonged to.

Andy remembered Jeff had smiled and knelt down to look at them face to face and asked if they actually believed in any of the religions their foster parents had ever introduced them to. They had both shaken their heads in a "no". Jeff just smiled again and stood saying, "Then there's no point in me trying. You two are perfectly capable of thinking for yourselves and don't need to tell you what to believe."

Andy didn't know if he actually believed that there was a Heaven or a Nirvana but if there was he hoped Jeff had gone to one of them. He'd never met an adult that deserved it more and he silently told the Enlightened One as much.

…

Mai knelt before her mother's grave. 'Touchan lit inscents on either side of the headstone and spread flowers over the grave itself, yuki yanagi, the snow willow; 'Touchan said that they had been her mother's favorite flower, they were her favorite too.

'Ohisashiburi desu ne, Okasama.' She thought silently. 'I'm doing well. I turned nine tonight, but you already knew that. 'Touchan still misses you allot but I guess you knew that too. Ojisama still has to fight with the family about him sometimes…

'Speaking of Ojisama, he's taken on an apprentice, a hakujin from America. His name's Andy and he's my age! He's kinda weird because he's always so serious and he doesn't like to play with 'Touchan and I and he doesn't like hugs! What kind of person doesn't like hugs?

'Maybe its just me he doesn't like. When he first started going to my school he would hang around me and my friends allot and then Eri-chan and Yukari-chan started making fun of me so I told him to go away. I think I hurt his feelings. He doesn't show it allot but I think he's really sad allot of the time.

'When he first came to live with us 'Touchan said that his Otousama had just died but just today he told me that he never had any parents. I think he doesn't like to admit that he needs people. I should have been nicer to him at school, he needed me.'

Mai's thoughts were silent, waiting for an answer of some sort from her mother, some gem of maternal wisdom that would suddenly explain everything. But none came, the grave, the cemetery and the night air was still. Mai sighed, of course there wouldn't be a response, the dead could not talk back to us no matter how much we spoke to them.

"Neh, 'Touchan…" She finally said aloud.

"Yes, Mai-chan?" He asked no moving or twitching from his posture of prayer.

"What does it mean when a person doesn't like to be hugged?"

"It means they weren't hugged enough when they were a kid."

"Oh." Mai was silent a moment longer, then "What if they still are a kid?"

"Then they need to be hugged more while they're still young." He answered, not bothering to ask what brought on this odd curiosity.

"Oh. Okay then." She turned her focus back to her mother's grave. 'I'm gonna try my best!' She promised.

"He's very grown-up for his age. A little too much, I think." Kazutaka said suddenly.

"Who?"

"Andy-chan." Kazu answered matter-of-factly. "He's very grown-up for a nine year old. It makes me wonder about his life before Jeff-san. Children shouldn't be able to understand adult concepts like murder or revenge."

"I understand them!" She argued.

"No, kitten, you understand what the words mean, you don't know what they are."

Mai thought about that for a moment.

"Don't strain yourself, kitten."

"'Touchan, you're mean." She said as she took a playful swing at her father.

"Ack! Not in front of your mother, she'll kill me if she sees that I've let you grow up to be violent."

Mai stopped.

"C'mon, kitten, it's getting early. I'm sure Chichi-ue and Andy-chan have finished at the temple by now. We should head home and you should start thinkin' of what you want for your birthday breakfast."

"Rice cake soup!" She said happily.

"Anything else? Anything to go with the soup?"

"Onigiri covered in sweet red bean paste!"

"Any vegetables?"

"No." She shook her head.

"Of course not…" Kazu groaned.

…

They all climbed up on the roof to watch Hatsuhinode, the first sunrise of the New Year. Mai scooted up close to Andy just as the sun was crowning the peaks of the Higashiyama Mountains. Andy scooted back away from her, Mai scooted close to him again, he scooted away again.

"Would you stop." Mai whispered, not wanting to disturb her father or grandfather.

"You stop." Andy hissed back. "You started it."

"I wanna talk."

"About what?"

"There's space at my table at lunch." She said.

"So?"

"You can sit with us if you want to."

"I thought you didn't want me giving you my 'boy-cooties' in front of your friends."

"A girl can't change her mind?"

"Would you two stop!" Hanzo-sensei turned toward the pair. "Stop wispering like a pair of conspirators and stop crawling all over my roof. One of you is gonna fall and I'm gonna half to clean it up."

"Sumimasen, Sensei."

"Gomen ne, Ojisama."

"Hm." He nodded and turned his attention back to the now almost completely risen sun.

"By the way, Mai." Andy whispered more softly so that Hanzo-sensei wouldn't hear this time. "Happy birthday. I heard that today was your birthday."

She smiled at him. "Thank you." And she leaned over and gave him a short hug, letting go almost immediately when his muscles tensed at her touch.

They sat in silence after that and watch the rest of the sunrise.

"Now, then, Mai-chan," Kazutaka said after the sun was completely up. "How about those vegetables."

Mai grumbled, Hanzo laughed and Andy smiled awkwardly. They all climbed down from the roof and filed on into the house where they shared a breakfast to celebrate Mai's ninth birthday and then went to sleep.

Thus, Andy's first New Years with the Shiranui family was passed.


	4. Days of Filler

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the time that I first wrote this, I called it a 'filler chapter' because nothing was really accomplished in terms of Andy's goal. But now that I'm older and re-reading it, it is still good character development and relationship development between Andy and Mai. So, while I kept the chapter title "Days of Filler" I just want it to be said that I no longer consider this to be a 'filler chapter'.

The following school semester was much better for Andy. Talk began of the Spring Sports Festival and he suddenly found himself to be the most popular kid in his class. His classmates couldn't help but notice how he excelled in PE, that coupled with the knowledge that he was a ward of the Shiranui dojo made everyone in third-year class 4-A anxious to have him sign up for as many events as possible as soon as possible.

Considering the amount as well as the nature of this newfound popularity, Andy greatly missed being a loaner.

However, there was one change since New Years that actually did seem like an improvement. Mai had made good on her promise to repeal her restraining order on him. She waved him over to her table at lunch on their first day back. He didn't particularly feel like sitting with her anymore, by this point he was pretty familiar with the school, the students and the language and so had no real need for the comfort he presence brought.

But it was nice to know that the offer was still open if he ever did need it, it was nice to know that he wasn't being shut out or rejected. Rejection was something that had happened to him allot in the System and so Mai's offer to share her table with him, small gesture that it was, meant allot to him. He also enjoyed the freedom it gave him, if there was ever going to be any rejecting going on he preferred to be the one to do it.

January faded into February, Valentines Day came and went. It seemed every boy in his class besides himself got chocolate from one girl or another (usually interrupting their Sports Festival training to do so, for some reason). February faded to March, White Day came and went. All the boys from his class that had gotten something on Valentines returned the gesture by getting something for the girl whom had gifted him. Andy found the whole practice very inefficient, if they were going to exchange gifts they should just do it on the same day instead of waiting a whole month in between.

March faded to April and as the Sports Festival drew nearer and nearer it seemed to become the only subject of conversation anyone ever heard. Whether he was at school or back at the Shiranui dojo everyone seemed to be talking about the immanent event.

"Ha! Second-year class 2-B is gonna kick third-year class 4-A's butt!" Mai announced one evening at dinner. Andy assumed she was trying to goad him into an argument of sorts by specifying that it was his class's collective butt she was going to kick and not just everyone's.

"Mai-chan please don't shout at the dinner table." Kazutaka chided the girl.

"Gomen ne, 'Touchan." She apologized, moderating her tone. "But seriously, third-year class 4-A's got nothin' on us." She cast her eyes sideways at Andy and was disappointed to see no reaction. ""Couse, ya know, 4-A's nothing but a bunch of whiny pansies."

"Actually, that's true." Andy finally spoke, helping himself to a second portion of odin as if this were just normal dinner conversation. "Just the other day Sagara-kun was whining about Chidori-san again."

"Andy-kun…" Mai glared at him. "You're not doing it right."

Hanzo-sensei snorted into his tea and then coughed for several moments, most likely attempting to cover up a laugh, Mai was oblivious to this, Andy saw right through it.

"Not doing what right?"

"Mai-chan is trying to banter with you." Kazu explained.

"I said class 2-B was gonna kick class 4-A's butt, you were supposed to say that no, class 4-A was gonna kick 2-B's butt." She explained. So she had been trying to bait him into an argument. "I said class 4-A is a bunch of pansies, you're supposed to say that 2-B's a bunch of sissies, or something like that."

"Oh. Sorry." He took a sip of his own tea. "Second-year class 2-B is a bunch of sissies." He said in a monotone.

"No, you're still not doing it right." She gave another one of those pouts that this author is so sad Andy can't yet appreciate. "C'mon, get exited! Your class is gonna be my only real competition this year, aren't you pumped?"

"I don't see how a stupid sports fair will help me further my training or avenge my father's death." He told her. "The whole thing seems really stupid and I'm only doing it because if I didn't then everyone in my class would make my life miserable for the rest of the year." He turned his attention back to his dinner.

"I see." Hanzo leveled a stare at Andy. "And these are your true feelings on the matter?" The aging master asked.

"Hai, Sensei."

"Okay then, puppy. I'm giving you a mission." This announcement brought everyone's heads up, their full attention now fixed on Hanzo. "If your class comes in ahead of Mai-chan's class in the Sports Festival then I'll step up your training. How's that for furthering your goal?"

Andy was suddenly wary. He had learned to be distrustful of bargains made with adults, especially when they didn't tell you what would happen if you lost the bet or failed to hold up your end of the bargain. Sometimes they would change the terms or just refuse to up-hold their end completely.

"And if Mai-san's class finishes ahead of mine?"

Hanzo pulled a paper fan out from nowhere and casually fanned himself. "I expect you'll have to be subjected to her bragging until you can rectify your defeat the next year at the next Sports Festival."

The terms didn't seem all that bad and if he could accelerate his training then it was worth the gamble of having to put up with Mai's bragging for a year. Besides, he had gotten quite good at avoiding her while here at the dojo and he did have to see her all that much around school either. All and all, he figured that he was getting the better end of the bargain.

"Deal." He said.

…

The day of the Sports Festival was overcast and gray, threatening to rain. Classes for that day had been canceled for the all day event.

Andy warmed-up with his fellow classmates. They had made him sign up for almost every event and he was not happy about that, on the other hand the rigorous day that was ahead of him might be a blessing in disguise as far as his training went. It would certainly be a test of his endurance and stamina, if nothing else.

The first event of the day was the hundred meter dash, followed by the long jump, then the high jump, then a short break for lunch and the clubs to solicit for new members, after lunch was the relay race, the festival's main event.

Andy came in first in the Dash, apparently he was quite fast in short bursts. His long jump, however, was not so great. His distance came up just over one meter placing his class in third behind Mai's. He had gritted his teeth when they displayed the scores on the chalkboard that had been brought out for that purpose, coming in first in the Dash had made him over confident, his defeat on the Long Jump reminded him that this was a mission not play.

He rectified his defeat on the Long Jump with a spectacular tie on the High Jump. Apparently, he and Mai had gotten the exact same score placing their classes at a tie. She had laughed at him from behind her fan, trying to make him angry, to goad him into doing something that would get him disqualified.

She came over and sat next to him at lunch, earning dirty looks from everyone in his class. They probably though he was fraternizing with the enemy, after all it wasn't second-year class 2-B that was their main competition it was Shiranui Mai, heiress of the Shiranui school or martial arts.

"What are you doing here?" He asked loud enough for his classmates to hear. He hoped they wouldn't think that he actually liked her company.

"You haven't come by my lunch table yet, so I thought I'd come to you." She answered sweetly and then launched herself on him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

He pushed her away the moment her arms encircled him, not only did he not like to be touched but he especially didn't want to be hugged by her in front of his classmates. "Leave me alone."

She gave another one of her cute pouts. "Why do ya always gatta push me away whenever I try being nice to you?"

"Because you're idea of 'nice' is annoying."

"I'm not annoying, you're annoying!" She shot back in class elementary school fashion. "Every time I try to be nice you act like I'm a pain. You just wanna be sad all the time!"

"What you're mistaking for being 'sad' is just me being more 'mature'. Don't get angry just because I'm more mature than you."

"Oh? You think that just because you're a little older than me you're more grown-up?"

"No." Andy replied evenly. "I'm more grown up than you because I had to grow-up to live where I lived and how I lived before I met my dad. You? You've had a home and a family your whole life. You don't know anything about the real world, you're just a sheltered little princess."

Mai was suddenly reminded of what her father had said on new years. 'He's very grown-up for his age…. makes me wonder about his life before Jeff-san.'

"Well, fine!" She shouted, not willing to let him have the last word. "I'd rather be a princess than a sad lonely little peasant boy with no friends!" And with that she stormed off to meet up with her classmates before the Relay Race.

…

They were still mad at each other when the classes lined up on the starting line. They were still seething when the rods were passed from the first group to the next. They were still incensed when their teammates came running towards them to pass the rods off for the final stretch of the race.

They glared at each other from across the track, hopping back and forth on the balls of their feet, ready to launch themselves at the finish line to moment their classmate deliver the rod.

Amano-kun was faster and reached Andy first, but then fumbled the pass-off Andy had to stop to pick up the rod, this gave Kanzaki-san time to reach Mai and pass of their rod to her. Not wanting to be beaten by a spoiled little princess Andy scooped up the rod and propelled himself towards the finish line.

He was quite fast in short bursts and caught up to Mai quickly. Mai, however, went at a more even pace and after Andy had caught up he started to slow down while she maintained the same speed. The end result was that they both crossed the finish line at the same time. A tie, their second tie for the day.

"Not… bad for a… princess." He panted.

"Not… bad for a… sad, lonely, little… huff. I'm tierd."

"Me too."

And the two promptly collapsed.

"Next time… lets not let them make us sign up for every event." Andy said.

"I only did because you were."

"Why?"

"I wanted to annoy you with my attempts at being nice." She replied sarcastically rolling over onto her side as she said so, propping herself up on one elbow.

Also rolling onto his side to face her he said, "We need water."

"Yeah." She agreed.

…

"So I heard you both lost." Hanzo-sensei commented when they had gotten home. Andy wasn't sure how word had traveled so fast and beaten them home but Mai didn't seem bothered by this so he just brushed it off.

"We didn't 'lose', Sensei, we tied." Andy corrected, thinking the rumor network that had informed him had passed on some misinformation.

Mai face palmed at his words while Hanzo-sensei raised a single quizzical eyebrow.

"You tied…" He said slowly. "Tell me, puppy, had this been a battle instead of a children's' affair and you were fighting for your very life would you settle for a 'tie'?"

"Well, I…" He paused.

"You wouldn't, would you?" The master continued. "Had you been fighting Geese Howard would you have settled for a tie? I don't think you would have then either. Let this be a lesson for you: never settle. If you tie then you train harder until you can be the winner, if you are second then you work until you can be first. Never settle for second best."

"I… I'll try harder next time, Sensei." Andy promised, somewhat subdued.

"I should hope so. When you first came here I requested nothing but your very best and I expect nothing but the best from you, Andy-kun."

"Hai, Sensei."

…

Latter that evening Andy was practicing his forms in the courtyard when Mai came out to keep him company. She said nothing as she fell into step next to him, mimicking his movements but adding her own unique flare to the katas by gesturing with her fan.

"What are you doing here?" Andy asked after they had finished one set.

"You messed up today." She told him, beginning the next set of katas.

"What'd ya mean?" He followed suit.

"You told Ojisama that we tied. That's like saying that his training is second best or that he's only adequate. Ojisama has been very sensitive about that for almost as long as I can remember. I think its because the rest of the family puts allot of pressure on him and he doesn't want to seem weak."

"The rest of the family? But I thought you and Kazutaka-sama were all Hanzo-sensei's family. And how is a tie showing weakness?"

"You are the only person Ojisama is training personally right now." She explained. "Your actions, your successes and you're losses all reflect directly on him. I don't know much about it, 'Touchan says I'm to young to worry about grown-up problems but the rest of the family seems unhappy with Ojisama and the way he's running things."

"'Running things', Sensei's the head of the family?" He knew that the Shiranui family was well off and that Shiranui Hanzo had to be at least an important member of the family for everyone in the village of Mino to treat him with such respect and he knew that the old master had been out on family business the day he arrived in Japan but for some reason Andy had just never imagined his master as the head of a large and powerful Ninja family.

"Sou desu." She nodded. "If you were smart you would have said something like 'I may not have been first but either way it was a Shiranui win'. 'Touchan says that answers like that are diplomatic and say what you wanted to say without actually saying it. My family talks like that allot, its like no one can ever really say what they mean to say."

"Must be tough." He commented, not knowing if it was exactly the appropriate thing to say, especially not now that he knew that all his words were going to be dissected for hidden meanings.

"Yeah, but I only have to see them once a year. Which reminds me!" She paused in mid step and locked gaze with him. "Are you coming to Hagi with us this summer? Every summer Ojisama takes 'Touchan and I to Hagi to spend Obon with the rest of the family. Since you're staying with us you're coming to, right? I suppose he could send you to stay with Yamada-san, though. Uncle Nagare doesn't really like foreigners and he especially hates Americans. Ojisama might not want you to come along…"

Andy was momentarily thrown off his mental balance, that was allot of information to take in all at once. "What is Hagi?" He asked.

"Oh, it's a small island just off the coast of Niigata." She answered easily enough. "My family owns it."

"Your… your family owns its own island!"

"Just a small one."

Andy had to sit down. Somewhere amidst all the preparations to send him here, Master Tung had forgotten to mention that his new master was freaking rich! How was it that he had gone from living in an abandoned warehouse with drug addicts and the mentally insane to being the ward of a family that owned their own island? He looked up at Mai again. "What's 'Obon'?"

"It's a lantern festival to honor the dead." She replied happily. "It's a three day long celebration with dancing and candles and lights and we make offerings and-"

"I think I get it." He cut her off not wanting to put up with her irritatingly cheerful voice. "Its like the Day of the Dead in Mexico."

"Yeah!" She confirmed ecstatically. "Wait… what's the Day of the Dead?"

For some reason the floor suddenly became very slippery and Andy spontaneously fell to the ground with his feet sticking up in the air, an anime style drop for when face-palm just wasn't enough.

…

Andy's popularity after the Sports Festival seemed to level off at a point somewhere between the acclaim he had during the fair and when he had first arrived. He still didn't have any real friends but people were more sociable with him and often tried to include him in their conversations or pelt him with questions about Shiranui Hanzo. He actually learned more about his master in two weeks from his classmates than he had in almost a year living with the family.

He learned that Hanzo-sensei was so well liked by the people or Mino not because of his being the head of an old and wealthy family but because he had given generous amounts of financial aid to the town of Mino (as well as other small townships in Niigata prefecture) after the end of the War, late in the summer of forty-five.

Andy had to marvel at his master's kindness and generosity even at the age of twenty-four. He did have to wonder, however, how he and Master Tung could have ever become friends living through such a turbulent age and on opposite sides of the War no less. He found himself debating whether or not it was a good idea to ask him about it. It sounded like it would be an interesting story whatever had happened. But would he be overstepping his bounds and prying?

His classmates' talk turned to the mundane and Andy lost interest, his thoughts drifted to Terry for maybe the first time since he'd arrived in Japan. He wondered where his brother was, if his training was going well or not, if he had found another master or was training himself by other more unorthodox means. Was he still attending school? Did he have to put up with the same kind of silly chatter that normal kids their age talked about? Or had he stepped out of the societal norm and was he devoting his whole self to their mutual goal of revenge?

He was beginning to miss Terry almost as much as e missed Jeff. Out of all the people in Andy's life, Terry was the one person that had never left him, that had always been there for him. Even when they were separated, when the System put them in separate homes and they had to attend different schools Andy still knew that his brother would rush to his aid at the drop of his hat just as Andy was willing to do the same.

Terry had been the one to come to him one night and suggest that they run away. Terry had been there with him during their whole time living on the streets. Terry had been the one to find Jeff, to find them a real home. Out of everyone Andy had ever known in his whole short and inexperienced life, Terry was the one person he felt comfortable depending on.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.' That didn't apply to Terry.

…

The semester ended soon after the Sports Festival and Spring Break brought a welcome recess to the school's tedium. Andy worked twice as hard on learning the newest set of katas for his Koppouken fighting style. He was determined to give Hanzo-sensei better than his best. After his "defeat" at the Sports Festival he wanted to show his master that he was still serious about his training.

Koppoujitsu was a difficult art to learn, it focused on inflicting damage to an opponents bones rather than their muscles like most other martial arts. It was a hard discipline but Andy was determined. He especially didn't want to embarrass his master in front of the rest of the extended Shiranui family if and when he was taken to Hagi in the summer.

…

Spring Break ended all to quickly it seemed and Andy's time at school seemed to become consumed entirely by studying for end of the year exams. Classes were spent furiously taking down notes as teachers lectured on math, science, Japanese history and literature. By the end of each day Andy felt like he had learned more in eight hours than he ever had in four years of public school in America and by the following morning he had forgotten it all.

It seemed like the strategy for passing the end of the year exams wasn't so much learning the information as it was memorizing the material and then regurgitating it for the test. Andy could do that, it was all a matter of repetition, just like with his martial arts training. Practice, practice, practice. 'If you wanna be the best, its practice every day.'

Mai seemed more relived than he was when exams were finally over. He supposed that growing up in this system they were more of a tedious chore for her rather than an intellectual challenge as they were for him.

"Isn't it great to be free!" She exclaimed on their walk home from their final day of school (well, he was walking, Mai was skipping).

"Its just a passing freedom." He replied, putting a damper on her merry mood. "Real freedom is almost impossible. Even after my brother and I ran away we were still subject to our basic needs of food, shelter, sleep and warmth."

"Well, you're just a regular Mr. Sunshine, aren't you." She commented dryly.

"..."

"Well, I don't care what you say. Nothing is going to spoil my perfect mood. This is the best time of the year!" She thrust her fist into the air to punctuate her statement. "It's the longest possible time before more school!"

"And in another few days you'll get to see the rest of your family." Andy added.

"Yes, well…" She instantly sobered.

"You're not exited?"

"Hagi's a really nice place. The water's so clear and perfect for swimming and you can watch my cousins swimming or training from the porch and the porch opens out right onto the dock, but…" She paused. "Uncle Nagare is kinda mean. He's Ojisama's little brother but he wants to be the head of the family instead. He's always telling everyone else all the things Ojisama does wrong and never says anything nice and… and I don't like Koinosuke!"

Andy sighed. Why did she always have to give so much information all at once, in fragments and spoken so fast? Couldn't she just give him the important highlights, paraphrased and spoken slow enough for him to actually catch it?

So Nagare was Hanzo-sensei's brother. Nagare wants to be head of the family and so is trying undermine Hanzo in the eyes of the rest of the family in order to instigate a coup. ("Coup" by the way was one of the new words Andy learned for his exams. That's the only reason I can think of for a nine-year-old to know it). There was just one thing Andy couldn't decipher from her babble.

"Who's Koinosuke?"

"Uncle Nagare's grandson. He's closer to your age than to mine. Uncle Nagare is trying to convince Ojisama to agree to a marriage contract between Koi-chan and me but I don't like him."

"Uh-huh…" Andy said, more as an acknowledgment that she had spoken then out of any real appreciation for the information. He didn't understand enough about adult politics to be able to fathom why Nagare would want his grandson to marry Hanzo-sensei's granddaughter when he was trying to unseat Hanzo in the first place. But once again, Andy reminded himself that it was not his problem.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

His credo still held. In another nine years he would be out of the Shiranui family's collective lives, there was no sense in getting himself involved in something that wasn't any of his business in the first place. He was living with the Shiranui, he wasn't one of the Shiranui.

…

Two weeks later, Andy along with Mai, Kazutaka and Hanzo were on a boat bound for the small island of Hagi just off the coast of Niigata.


	5. The Island

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter where all the OCs show up. When I first wrote it, I included this author's note:
> 
> _'I'm terribly sorry but I'm afraid that this chapter will be very OC heavy. I have a certain prejudice against OCs and try to only use them in moderation. However, for this fic to be interesting I need conflict and I don't see much conflict arising without throwing some non-cannon characters into the mix._
> 
> _Why do I not just use Kisaragi Eiji as a romantic rival for Mai affections? Because contrary to popular belief, Kisaragi does not like Mai in a romantic way. Her text cameo in his character ending in Art of Fighting (English) was a mistranslation and he is, in fact to old for her._
> 
> _Thank you for reading this far and because I hate OCs I automatically assume that everyone else does to, so I will not be offended if you decide to flame me or stop reading this fic all together.'_
> 
> As you can clearly see by the other stories (for other fandoms) on my page, I no longer hold the same prejudice for OCs that I did before. That being said, because I hated them back then, all the original characters introduced in this chapter are going to be cardboard and 2-dementional. I did wanna spend the time it'd take to develop them.

After a three hour boat ride, the small island of Hagi came into view, it started as a small dot on the horizon but then grew into a squat semi-circular bit of land with a line of white sand running the length of its shore line and dense vegetation crowning the rest. The boat circled around to what Andy decided was the back of the island where the sandy beach was replaced by dark sea-tossed rocks.

"What are we doing here, Chichi-ue?" Kazutaka asked when Hanzo cut the boat's motor. "Both Mai-chan and Andy-chan are still two young to start- whaoh!"

The middle-aged ninja's sentence was cut short when Hanzo suddenly booted him off the boat, landing him in the water with a laud splash.

"Mai and Andy aren't the ones that are gonna be running the Course." The old master explained, leaning over the side. "You've been far to 'laxed in your own training, Kazu. You need to toughen back up."

"But I'm a pacifist!" He protested, treading water.

"Well, then you're in luck because the Course doesn't require you to fight anyone." Hanzo-sensei said as he lobbed a wakasashi out into that water and Kazu had to dodge quickly to avoid getting hit in the face by its shiny red lacquered sheath. "Use that since I'm sure that concealed fan of yours is all water-logged now." The old master ordered. "Have fun, Kazu. And whatever you do: don't embarrass me in front of your uncle."

"Hai, Chichi-ue." Kazutaka sighed in defeat before diving under the water to retrieve the sunken short sword.

Once Kazu had swum a safe distance away from the boat, Hanzo-sensei kicked in the motor again and brought the boat around to the front of the island with its white sandy beach and creaking dock and that ran from the deep water all the way up to the front doorstep of an old looking traditional style Japanese villa.

"What's 'the Course'?" Andy asked.

"Its just a type of training we do every summer when we come here." Hanzo replied mildly as he pulled the boat right up to the dock and tied it off. Andy couldn't help but notice that they were not the first to arrive. A sailboat was also moored there, its sails wafting idly in the soft summer breeze.

"Damn." Hanzo-sensei muttered.

Andy couldn't quite figure why his master would be so upset over not being the first to arrive, he just assumed the boat belonged to his brother, Nagare and was afraid of being made to look bad in front of the rest of the family. This was one of the facets of adult mentality that Andy would never understand, putting so much stock in other people's opinions.

"Andy, would you be so kind as to carry Kazu's bag for him. I'm afraid it'll be a while until he gets back." Hanzo-sensei attempted a sweet smile but it seemed oddly strained to the fair-haired ninja in training.

"Uh, sure."

They climbed out of the boat and made their way down the dock to the villa. It was a charming building with solid wood beams supporting a red painted bamboo roof. The shoji screens had been painted with scenes of battles that seemed to span all of Japan's history and were set into delicate sliding wood frames that made no sound when opened.

A sweet looking elderly woman with a slight bend in her back came out to greet them. She bowed low to Hanzo-sensei, offering a formal greeting before politely nodding to Mai and Andy in turn. Andy returned her bow, causing one of the two travel bags he was balancing precariously over his shoulder to topple to the ground, landing on the weather beaten dock with a thump.

"Sumimasen." He apologized and rushed to pick it back up.

"He seems very eager to please." The woman commented. She smiled humorously but Andy had the sinking feeling that she was laughing at him and not his slapstick behavior, unintentional as it was. "I do hope he's a better ninja then he is a bell-hop."

"He's just fine the way he is." Hanzo replied coolly.

"Well, you are the master." She shrugged. "I'm just the old bat that cares for your property as Nagare-sama was so kind to point out to me when he arrived."

"Nagare's here then." Hanzo said, more as a statement that a question.

"Hai." Said the Old-Bat-that-Cares-for-the-Shiranui's-Property. "And he's got that little rat of a grandson with him. They're taking refreshments in the tea room next to the garden." She turned her attention back to Andy. "You don't look much like a rat to me. Tell me: do you like to run up and down the halls opening all the screens and then slamming them shut again and making the floors squeak with that awful racket?"

"No, ma'am."

She scrutinized him for a moment longer. "He's very polite for an Amerika-jin." She said to Honzo. Then to Andy she said, "You strike me more as a puppy type."

"That's what 'Touchan and Ojisama call him." Mai piped up, unhappy with the lack of attention she'd been getting.

"They have good eyes." Nodded Old-Bat-that-Cares-for-the-Shiranui's-Property. Then to Hanzo-sensei she said, "Shall I announce you?"

"Please. And after that would you kindly show little Bogard-san round the island."

"Hai, Hanzo-dono." She bowed low and turned to lead them inside the villa.

Just inside they all slipped out of their shoes and the Old-Bat-that-Cares-for-the-Shiranui's-Property provided them with soft house slippers to wear on the tatami mats. She lead them down a hallway that squeaked the moment it was set foot on and continued to chirp the whole way down.

"This place must be very old." Andy commented. For the floors to creak this badly the building had to be practically ancient. He wondered why no one had ever thought to renovate it and put down new boards.

"It is." Hanzo-sensei confirmed. "But that has nothing to do with the 'song' of our little uguisubari, our nightingale floor."

"Huh?" The boy asked in dumbfounded confusion.

"I'll explain latter." The Old-Bat-that-Cares-for-the-Shiranui's-Property said, pausing in front of one of the shoji sliding doors and dropping ungracefully to her knees. From her position on the floor she opened the door for Hanzo and Mai to enter. "Hanzo-dono, head of the Shiranui clan and Mai-hime." She announced, bowing to the two occupants that were already in the room.

"Stay with Saichi." Hanzo hissed the order to Andy out the corner of his mouth before entering the room.

'Saichi' Andy assumed was the name of the old woman that was caretaker of the house here at Hagi, the woman that Nagare apparently calls 'the old bat that cares for the Shiranui's property'.

Saichi bowed once again before closing the door behind Hanzo-sensei and Mai. Andy was just barely able to catch Mai glancing back as the door was slid shut, looking forlorn and gloomy. He sympathized for her even if he couldn't sympathize with her. He'd never before been in a situation similar to this, heck, he'd never before been in a family similar to this and he'd had his fair share of families.

"Well, then." Saichi climbed awkwardly to her feet, the bend in her spine causing her to have to lean on the wall for balance more than once. "What say you and I take these things to the suits, eh?"

She indicated the two travel bags he still carried as well as the two that Hanzo-sensei and Mai had left out in the hall. Andy picked up Mai's bag (the smaller of the two) and slung it over his shoulder as well. Saichi attempted to lift Hanzo-sensei's bad but after Andy saw how the old woman was struggling with it, he traded Mai's bag for Hanzo's.

"You're a little to nice." She said, scrutinizing him suspiciously but taking the trade all the same. "What are you planning?"

"Nothing." Andy answered honestly. Didn't the rest of the Shiranui help her out when they stayed here? She was very old after all and had an obvious back problem.

She lead him back down the hallway with the squeaky floor, the nightingale floor to a flight of stairs that landed in a gleaming hallway of polished wood and paintings of flowers decorating the shoji screens, a different flower for every room.

"Hanzo-dono prefers the sakura room." Saichi told him, indicating a corner room with the delicate pink blossoms of the cherry tree painted across its door. The boy obediently strode over to deposit his master's travel bag in the indicated room.

A wide window spanned one whole side of the sakura room and offered a beautiful view of the garden behind the house as well as the dense woodland that darkened the island. It was also, it seemed directly above the tea room where Hanzo-sensei and Mai were currently conversing with Nagare and his grandson, Koinosuke. Snippets of conversation drifted up to him but he couldn't make any sense of them and he thought it best no to eavesdrop.

"Hime-sama shall go in the nadeshiko room, I think." Saichi was saying to herself when Andy returned. "And you…" she turned to face the boy, "… you will take the chrysanthemum room, yes."

"And what about Kazutaka-sama?" Andy asked, still carrying the man's bag.

"Kazutake-sama?" Saichi seemed thrown for a moment. "Kazutaka can share a room with you."

"Okay." It wasn't until after Andy had laid down both his and Kazu's travel bags that he thought it was odd that Saichi, a servant, had called the son of her master by his given name with no honorific. Before he had come to Japan Master Tung had told him that it was very rude to call a person by their given name without an honorific tacked onto the end of it.

She seemed to show such respect to Hanzo and Mai referring to them as '-dono', a title of the highest status and respect and Mai as 'hime', which, as far as Andy had learned was equivalent to 'princess'. So why then not show the same level of respect for Kazutaka?

Come to think of it, Hanzo had also been a bit thrown when he'd referred to Kazutaka as '-sama' on his first day here in Japan. Hanzo had said it was something that he could tease Kazu about. Was it because he was a pacifist? Was that why everybody seemed to disrespect him? What kind of ninja was a pacifist any way?

"Oi, puppy! Are you gonna take all day?" Saichi stood in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. "Hanzo-dono ordered me to show you around the place, so c'mon."

Dutifully, Andy rose to his feet and followed the old woman out. She showed him the residential wing of the house along with the servants' quarters, the kitchen, the dinning hall, the gardens and the training field. She left him at the training field, saying that she was required to greet the rest of the family as they arrived and couldn't have a hakujin puppy under foot.

Andy took advantage of his time alone to practice the old stances that Tung Fu Rue had taught him and Terry. Again, he thought of his brother and where he was, what he was doing. Was he training as hard was Andy was now? How strong had he gotten?

Andy wished thoroughly that he knew where his brother was so that he could give him a call (assuming they had phones on this island) or at least send him a letter (assuming they got post on this island). He wanted to know just how much stronger his Terry had become, to measure himself against his big brother. A wicked grin spread across the boys face. What if, after these ten years Andy, the younger brother had surpassed and become stronger than his big brother?

'That would be awesome!' The boy thought.

…

Mai hated these stuffy and formal meetings with her uncle. He was a stuffy old man with stuffy old ideas and he was convinced that he was right and anyone and everyone that disagreed with him was wrong. He was convinced that he should be head of the family instead of Ojimasa and he was convinced that Mai would not be a good Clan Leader after him if she weren't married. Married, one might add, to a ninja that he deemed worthy of the position.

She was nine for cripes sake!

True, Mai did dream about one day finding and marrying her "Prince Charming" but that was a long way off. Right now she wanted to enjoy her youth, to run and jump and climb trees and most assuredly not act like a 'proper lady' should act.

Nagare frowned at her skinned knees and blue denim shorts. A woman did not damage her skin and a woman did not show her legs casually. A kunoichi (female ninja) did not allow herself to be injured unless her training had been deficient and her skills were lacking. A kunoichi did not display her body unless it was specifically meant to disarm an opponent. On both accounts, as a woman and as a ninja, Mai was inappropriate in Nagare's eyes.

Koinosuke wasn't too fond of Mai either. He was at that age where all girls had cooties and were just all around not pleasant. But in addition to that he resented the way the rest of the family and the few retainers employed by the Shiranui treated her like their precious little princess when his grandfather had told him that he deserved more honor and respect than "that irritating little vixen-in-miniature". He was none to happy with the idea of having to live with Mai (which to the mind of a ten-year-old was what marriage was).

Hanzo was exasperated to no end by the whole affair. He and his brother had been close at one time, but their separate and very different experiences during the War had made them into different people. Nagare had become stubborn and stiff, set in his ways and convinced that traditions were the life's-blood of the country as well as the family and had to be up-held at all cost. He was set in his belief and feared change. While Hanzo, after seeing what his own people had done in Manchuria, had become a forward thinker, putting old feuds between counties and cultures aside in favor of progress and change.

Both wanted what was best for their family but both had very different ideas of what that was. The debates were long.

"I see your points, Nagare." Hanzo lifted a hand when his brother paused in his speech, a signal for quite. "But I think that this is a discussion that should wait until Kazutaka returns from the Course."

Mai brightened when her grandfather said this. Her father was adamantly against the idea of her marrying her second cousin and would do all in his power to argue for her against the marriage contract.

"That worthless pacifist." Nagare said the word like a curse. "He forfeited his right to inherit years ago. He has no say in how we conduct our affair."

"Even so," Hanzo insisted in a tone of deadly calm that warned that he had already been insulted and that Nagare should tred softly, "he is still my son…" this word was stressed to remind Naga that an insult to Kazu was still a slight against him, "… and although he has been removed from succession he's still Mai-chan's father and should have a say in her future. No terms will be discussed until he is present."

"T'ch, you've gone soft, Ani-ue. I hear you've even taken a hakujin as an apprentice."

"News travels fast." Hanzo commented dryly. "As I recall many of our Axis friends were hakujin. In fact, they seemed rather proud of it and never missed a moment to rub it in our faces, as I recall." Hanzo reminded him coolly.

"I've heard you've taken an Amerika-jin hakujin as your apprentice." Nagare spat the word 'Amerika-jin' as if it were something vile and despicable. "Have you forgotten what they did to us? Need I remind you of all the innocent lives that were lost thanks to their monstrosities of war?"

"I remember quite well. But I also remember that we were quite monstrous ourselves back in Manchuria and at Midway. The only difference between the Americans and us was a matter of scale. Besides," Hanzo folded his arms and adjusted to a more comfortable seating position, "you cannot blame a single individual whom wasn't even born yet at that time for the actions of an entire government."

"You've invited a wolf into your home, Ani-ue."

"Maybe, but its snakes one must worry about, Naga." Hanzo shot back, intentionally leaving the 're' off his brother's name.

…

The day wore one, evening soon fell and Kazutake still hadn't returned from this mysterious 'Course' that Hanzo-sensei had sent him into. Andy wanted to ask, since it seemed that he and Mai would eventually have to go through the same thing. He wanted to know what he'd be getting himself into and how he could prepare for it.

Saichi returned and informed him that formal wear was required for dinner tonight, the first evening of the retreat was always a formal occasion, apparently. Andy bowed to her in a thank you and rush back up to his room to change. Now he understood why Kazutaka-sama had packed a silk hakama and haori for him, he supposed it would be very embarrassing for Hanzo-sensei to have his foreigner apprentice to show up to a formal Japanese dinner wearing jeans and a t-shirt, or worse, his sweaty, stinky training clothes.

The nightingale floor chirped and squeaked as he passed on his way back upstairs and Andy wondered why such an irritating thing was ever created or why anyone would ever want one in their home. Granted, the Shiranui didn't live at Hagi most of the year but Andy had been here only a day and the constantly creaking floor was getting on his nerves. He made a mental note to also ask about the floor when he asked about the Course.

Half way through struggling with his hakama Andy started to wish that Kazutaka-sama were there. The last time Andy had tried to wear traditional Japanese clothes he hadn't been able put it on without Kazu's help. Now here was struggling with a more complicated outfit completely on his own. Why did everything the Japanese wore have to be so darn complicated? What was wrong with normal western pants and a pullover shirt?

There was a knock on the wood frame of his door and before he could respond the door was slid open and Saichi entered. "Ojama shimasu." She said. "Hanzo-dono tells me you don't know how to dress yourself."

"I can dress myself!" The boy protested. "Just… not in this stuff."

Saichi sighed and knelt down to help him tie his hakama. "I suppose you'll learn after you've worn them enough."

"Uh, I guess." Andy agreed half-heartedly. "Hey, Saichi-san, you've worked for the Shiranui for a while, right?"

"Almost all my life, puppy."

"Can you tell me what the Course is? Hanzo-sensei never explained it to me."

"Its just another type of training we do here at Hagi." She answered matter-of-factly. "Ninja navigate their way here from the other side of the island whilst dodging traps that have been set all over the island."

"So it's like an obstacle course?"

"I s'pose so." Saichi nodded. "It's supposed to improve your survival skills as well as cunning and adaptive problem solving skills. Kinda like the nightingale floor is meant to improve your stealth."

"That's what its for?" Andy asked, happy that Saichi had volunteered the information without his prompting it.

"Hai, ninja try to cross the floor without making a sound." She smiled. "Its sometimes very funny to watch."

Andy could just imagine, the idea of a grown man slinking on tiptoe through the hallways in bowed daylight with an audience would be funny.

"Well, puppy, I think you're all set." She stood and led him out the room.

…

Mai looked thoroughly miserable in all the layers of robes she was wearing, Andy's heart went out to her. If he felt as uncomfortable as he did in his simple hakama and haori then she must be truly suffering under her five layered robes that she wore over her kimono. Andy cast his eyes about the rest of the party.

The Shiranui family was rather large, he noted. And, judging by how they held themselves, comprised almost entirely of fighters. There was the odd "trophy-wife" here and there. One didn't need to be told that that was what they were, it was apparent by their magnificent beauty, dim expressions and shallow conversations.

Andy once again found himself wondering about Kazutaka-sama and how he could have ever become a pacifist with a family such as this, where children were taught ninjitsu almost as soon as they could walk.

The whole affair of dinner was rigid and stuffy. They all asked each other pleasant questions and all gave polite but expected answers.

"How was your trip?"

"Oh, it was fine. Thank you."

"I've noticed that so-and-so is missing. Is he/she finally running the Course?"

"Oh, yes. We're very proud of him/her."

"Lovely weather this summer. Don't you agree?"

"Yes, quite."

Everyone was smiles and nods and to Andy's eyes it was all fake. But then he had grown up expecting to see lies whenever adults spoke. It could be that he was just being bias and that this was how the Shiranui family truly was, it wasn't fake, it was impersonal, like every one in the family treated one another like business associates rather than family.

And then the topic turned to that of Mai's betrothal to Koinosuke…

"I heard a rumor, Hanzo-dono, that our little Hime-sama might be wed to cute little Koinosuke-chan. Am I right?" One of the women asked. Andy couldn't quite remember her name, they had all been introduced to him but there were so many of them for him to meet and all of them at once, their names had just gone in one ear and out the other and then piled on the floor next to him to be swept out the door by Saichi latter that evening.

"Nothing is for certain." Was Hanzo-sensei's diplomatic answer.

Andy could tell by the tightness in some of the faces of those gathered that not everyone in the Shiranui family was keen on the idea of Mai's betrothal. The subject seemed to die there and Mai seemed to finish her dinner whilst under a cloud of gloom. The family seemed to laps into an awkward silence after that, until it was broken by one of the "trophy-wife" types asking after Kazutaka.

"And how is your son, Hanzo-dono. Kazuhito? I noticed he's not with you."

"Kazutaka." He corrected impassively. "He's running the Course right now, he should join us in a day or two."

"That confident in him, are you." Nagare commented. "That no-account hippy will be lucky if he can get here before Obon. He's grown weak, Ani-ue. You never should have let him marry that woman. Now he's just a waste of space and a bad influence on your granddaughter. If he were my son-"

"But he is not your son, Nagare." Hanzo snarled. "Neither are you head of this family or in any other position that allows you to dictate his life. And, you should know better than to speak ill of the dead so close to the Lantern Festival. Do you wish to bring ill fortune down upon the whole of this family?"

A deadly silence followed this. No one dared speak, their eyes flicking from Hanzo to Nagare as the two glared at each other.

"Perhaps I spoke out of turn." Nagare finally conceded after a prolonged pause.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title has nothing to do with the fiction. Its an allusion to an old show called "The Prisoner" which also takes place on an island and the main character's name is "Number Six". I couldn't think of a relevant chapter title so (since it's the sixth chapter) I figured a small Prisoner reference would be alright.

Hagi, as far as Andy could tell, was one large training camp for the entire Shiranui family. Everything, it seemed, was meant to be some sort of obstacle, puzzle or test; something that would hone a ninja's skills, like the nightingale floor for stealth and the Course for survival. But there was also breakfast, yes; breakfast became a form of training, speed training to be exact. Saichi was specifically ordered not to make enough food to go around and so it was first come first served and the last person to show up for the meal didn't get anything until lunch.

The days were hot and humid; everyone seemed to prefer practicing their katas in the water, while the light ocean waves lapped at their shins. Mai did not join them to practice in the water. She said she was afraid of getter her fans wet that they wouldn't be effective weapons if the paper were weakened by water. But Andy had a sneaking suspicion that she just didn't want to practice so close to her prospective fiancé.

Instead she would stand beside him and practice her forms as they had at the Shiranui dojo so many times. Andy didn't train in the water with the others because he got the distinct impression that none of them liked him. They never said anything out loud, probably out of respect for Hanzo-sensei but still… the feeling was there. He assumed it was because he was American and the older members of the family were from the generation that lived through the second World War and weren't to happy with the way America had ended it; that hatred seemed to lessen in subsequent generations, but it was still present.

When Mai came over to train with him instead of them it just earned him more dirty looks.

"I'm thinking of reinstating your hundred and fifty centimeters rule." He told her after this continued longer than he felt comfortable with. The Shiranui family didn't have to like him, but if he was going to live with them for the next ten years he would like them to at least not hate him.

"Why?" The girl asked in utter confusion. She was, apparently, oblivious to the general opinion of him within the family.

"Because I don't want your future fiancé to get the wrong idea, just like you didn't want your classmates to get the wrong idea." It was sorta true. He didn't care one way or another how Koinosuke specifically thought about him, but rather the whole of the Shiranui family of which he was a part of.

"Oh." She looked suddenly downcast. "Him."

She moved a few paces away and continued practicing her katas. They worked like that for a while in relative silence. Andy didn't quite know why she was so attached to him; he hadn't even been living with her for a whole year yet! She had no reason and not enough time to form an attachment and he wasn't sure yet if he could tackle the roll of older brother to her. He'd been the younger brother his whole life and wasn't sure if he was equipped to be her big brother.

He wondered if Terry had had to figure out how to be a big brother or if he had just fallen into the role naturally. They hadn't really been together very much while in foster care. It was only after they had run away that they were really able to live together, after they had run away and after Jeff had adopted them. Granted, his and Terry's situation hadn't exactly been normal, maybe playing the roll of big brother to Mai would be easier for him that it had been for Terry because of the relative stability of the Shiranui's living situation.

"Hey, Mai-san." He asked suddenly. "Why don't you call me 'Niisan'? Since you seem to cling to me like a little sister."

She looked momentarily thrown by the suddenness and apparent randomness of his question. "Well, maybe I don't want to."

He thought about that for a moment. "Niisan" was a term of endearment that could be applied to any male that was slightly older than yourself that you had a certain affection for or looked up to. So if she didn't look up to him in any way and had no affections for him, then why was she so very very clingy?

"Why don't you call me 'sempai'?" She asked.

"Wha? I'm older than you!"

"I've been studying ninjitsu longer."

"I am not calling you 'sempai'."

"Fine."

They turned their attentions away from each other and returned to their respective katas. When Andy had first come to the Shiranui dojo, Hnazo-sensei had told him that he was to practice until everything was second nature to him, well he'd be doing the kappou-ken katas for so long now he felt confident that he could now do them in his sleep. He wondered when Hanzo-sensei was finally going to let him spar. He wanted to test the new skills he'd been learning over the past year. He made plans to ask his master if he could.

…

"No." Hanzo said flatly.

"But why?" Andy knew that he shouldn't talk back, that had been a lesson he'd learned back in South Town. Giving lip got you nowhere. But he'd been training so hard and practicing so much, he wanted to prove to himself that he was making progress.

"You're not ready." Another flat reply. "You don't even have a full year of training under your belt and every single ninja here could rip you to shreds."

"What about just a teaching match?" The boy pressed. "I'm sure there's someone here that can hold back depending on their opponents relative skill level. I just wanna put what I've learned into practice."

"Oh, let the brat have a match, Ani-ue." Nagare said, coming up behind his brother and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Besides, I wanna see what your little pet hakujin can do."

Andy didn't like being referred to as Hanzo-sensei's "pet" but if it got him what he wanted he didn't mind putting up with a verbal abuse. Verbal abuse wasn't so bad.

"Nagare, may I remind you that he's none of your concern and I thank you to keep your abnormally large nose out of my business." Hanzo-sensei shrugged off his brother's hand and took a step away from him.

"As a concerned member of this family, your business is my business, Ani-ue."

"Andy has nothing to do with this family. As you said: he's just a 'pet-project', a promise I made to an old friend."

"That Chink you met Manchuria." Nagare snorted. "What was his name Tung Rung Fu? I don't see how you can associate with deplorable rubbish, Chinks and Dough Boys."

"Tung Fu Rue." Hanzo corrected. "And who I choose to associate with is also none of your concern. Also, I would appreciate it if you refrain from insulting my pupil's former tutor or his countrymen in front of him. I don't give a damn what you may say behind closed doors but don't go bothering people who have nothing to do with you."

"T'ch." Nagare scoffed before stomping off imperiously.

"Thank you." Andy muttered.

"Don't be. He just really pisses me off sometimes." Hanzo sighed and looked sideways at Andy. "You got a brother too, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me something, puppy. After these ten years are over you and your brother are gonna be very different people and you may not always agree on allot of things." He paused and waited for Andy to nod his understanding. "But whatever you do, just please don't start hateing your brother for seeing differently than you or having different priorities, whatever."

"Okay." That seemed easy enough. He could never imagine himself ever hating Terry anyway, he was the only person that had almost always been there. Even when they lived in separate homes, he knew Terry was there for him; all he had to do was ask.

Hanzo sighed. "I'll see about that spar."

"Thank you, Sensei." Andy bowed respectfully.

…

Andy was not happy with his master's choice of sparring partner for him. Not happy at all. His face flushed when Mai smiled at him from the other side of the ring. Jeff had always told him not to hit girls, but how was he supposed to spar with a girl if he couldn't hit a girl? He had felt terrible after pushing her that one time, how was he going to feel after a match with her? What would Jeff think?

"It will be a three hit match." Hanzo-sensei was explaining. "The first combatant to land three hits on their opponent is the winner."

Mai raised her hand politely. "Three hits in a row or just three hits?"

"Just three hits." Hanzo-sensei clarified. "There will be a twenty minuet time limit, if your time runs out and neither of you have landed three hits then the one in the worst shape is the loser, if you fall or are knocked out of the ring then you lose, if you are knocked unconscious you lose, if you die then you are dead and shouldn't care that you lost. Any questions?"

Andy raised his hand slowly as if in school. "I have a problem." He said, his face turning hot with embarrassment as the rest of the Shiranui family looked on, waiting to see their princess kick the ass of the American interloper. "My dad told me not to hit girls."

Everyone erupted into laughter. Andy felt his embarrassment deepen.

"Then I suggest you try not to get hit for the next twenty minuets." Hanzo-sensei said. "Begin!"

Andy hadn't expected the match to begin so suddenly. He barely had enough time to register that he was endanger before one of Mai's fan's came spinning towards him at ninety miles an hour. He jumped over her "Ka cho sen" and then had to block one of her kicks. He wondered momentarily if a blocked hit counted as a hit or not but didn't want to distract himself long enough to ask.

She pulled another fan from the folds of her gi and swung it at him in an attempt to break through his defenses. Andy tired backing up, away from his opponent to give himself a moment to breath and think on his next move.

"Oh ho ho ho." Mai laughed from behind her fan in a vain attempt to goad Andy into an ill-conceived attack. He refused to give into the tease.

What was he going to do? He didn't want to hit a girl but if he didn't then he would lose the match. Twenty minuets was a long time to keep an attacker at bay, his best bet was to knock Mai out of the chalk circle that served as their ring. But how was he going to accomplish that without hitting her?

He spent too much time thinking and his guard slipped. Mai caught him hard in the chest with her elbow, sending him staggering backwards.

"One!" Hanzo-sensei announced.

Andy glared at Mai and struggled to regain his balance. So a hit didn't count if it was guarded against. That was good to know, but it still didn't help him. He was down by one and still wasn't willing to hit Mai because she was a girl and Jeff had always told him it was wrong to hit girls.

Mai dropped into a crouch and swiped at Andy's ankles with the decorative tail of her costume. The blond ninja-in-training was once again thrown off balance and fell backwards onto his back. "Kuso!"

"Two!" Hanzo announced. "And watch your language, puppy."

Andy grumbled something in English that may or may not have been some choice swears picked up on the streets of South Town. This was his last chance, his last opportunity to knock Mai out of the ring before she landed her third and final hit on him, if he could just get her there.

Mai struck out with her fan again but Andy jumped and somersaulted over her, landing gracefully with own back to hers. She came around with a kick just as the back of his hand swung out at her. The two connected at the same time, Mai's kicked impacting on Andy's hip and his hand smacking her hard enough that she staggered out of the ring. In the end he had had to hit her, Jeff would be disappointed.

"Three! And one." Hanzo-sensei announced. "With a ring-out. What is it you two have with ties?"

The two seemed to ignore him.

"Not bad, Andy." Mai was saying. "You actually managed to touch me." She laughed behind her fan again.

"Whatever. You're still out of the ring and I'm not." The boy shot back. "You were unfortunate to have to fight me."

"Children!" Hanzo shouted so as to be heard over their banter. The two instantly silenced themselves and demurred. "Go clean up and reflect on your mutual defeats."

"Hai, Ojisama."

"Hai, Sensei."

They bowed.

…

That evening a number of ninja returned to the villa from their run through the Course. Everyone's name along with the time of their arrival was recorded on a sort of score sheet that was displayed on one of the pillars that bordered the training field. Among the top three was a woman named Shizune, whom was Nagare's daughter, Koinosuke's mother.

Andy watched as the woman smiled arrogantly at her high ranking on the score sheet. It was only after she had confirmed her success that she went to hug her son. Then Mai was pushed forward. She bowed politely to her apparent future mother-in-law and congratulated the woman on her success.

"A woman must strive to be the best in all her endeavors." Shizune replied imperiously to Mai's polite but hollow complements.

"I shall keep your words in mind." Mai replied with that same hollow tone of forlorn hopelessness.

Mai sat out on the back porch for a long while after that, watching the tree line for any sign of her father. The absence of her only real advocate's presents while surrounded by all these shallow adults with fake smiles and empty words was probably starting to weigh on her heavily. Andy could sympathize with her, he knew all about shallow adults with fake smiles and empty promises, he sat beside her in silent company.

She glanced at him momentarily when he sat down but made no comment. Andy found that a little odd, usually whenever she was around him he couldn't get her to shut-up. But he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth or however that saying went. If Mai didn't feel like talking then that was more then all right by him.

They listened to the wind stirring the leaves of the trees, a cicada buzzing off in the distance, the squeak and chirp of someone tip-toeing over the nightingale floor on their way to the bathroom. It was actually a very peaceful summer evening. Andy lay back on the wood of the porch and watch the thin summer clouds drift across the moon.

The moon was white here, in South Town it had always been yellow or brown, but never white, never clean. Even with the conniving members of the Shiranui family and their plastic smiles this place was far cleaner than South Town had ever been and Andy once again found himself thinking, 'I could live here. I could make this work.' He knew he wouldn't. He knew that he could never really get attached to a place like he had been attached to the small two-bedroom apartment he'd had with Jeff, but it was still nice to dream.

"I don't like Tea Ceremony." Mai's arbitrary statement knocked him out of his reverie.

"What?"

"Now that Shizune-sama is back I'm going to have to start my lessons in tea ceremony again." She explained. "I hate tea ceremony."

"I'm… sorry?"

"I wish 'Touchan were back. I was hoping he'd be back before Shizune-sama or at least with her." She turned her gaze toward him and her eyes seemed to shine with reflected moonlight. "You know, you're the reason Ojisama sent 'Touchan into the Course. He knew that the rest of the family wouldn't approve of him taking an American as an apprentice and they already disapproved of him accepting 'Touchan back into the family. He wanted to look like he was at least trying to respect their traditions."

"I'm sorry." That was allot for someone to take in all at once. Why did she always have to give him so much all at once, hadn't she ever heard of pacing herself? "Wait. What do you mean by, accepting Kazutaka-sama back into the family? I thought his was Hanzo-sensei's son."

"'Touchan was kicked out." She answered.

Andy swallowed the derogatory remark of "Obviously" and instead asked, "But why?"

Mai just shrugged. "The family wasn't going to let him marry my Okasama so he left and Uncle Nagare made Ojisama disown him. When Okasama died Ojisama dragged 'Touchan back and the family's been against him ever since."

"Against Kazutaka-sama or against Hanzo-sensei?"

"Both, I guess."

Andy supposed that made since. Kazutaka's leaving the family for a woman would have been seen as a betrayal and Hanzo's accepting him back could be interpreted as weakness for the plight of his only son.

"What was so bad about your mom that they wouldn't let your dad marry her?"

Another shrug. "He met her at school in Boston."

So, she had been American then, like him. Andy glanced sideways at Mai. He couldn't see her clearly in the dark but he could picture her long hair, more reddish-brown ten a proper Asian black, her big almond shaped eyes, her heart shaped face; her features were ever so slightly mixed. He wondered why he'd never quite noticed it before.

"Shizune-sama was supposed to become the next heir after 'Touchan but Ojisama refused." Mai continued, steering the conversation away from her late mother. "When 'Touchan came back with me Ojisama advocated me as his heir so now Uncle Nagare and Shizune-sama want me to marry Koinosuke because they think they could control me through him."

Andy was a bit surprised by Mai's display of understanding and intelligence. He'd had her pegged as a thoughtless ditz but now he was beginning to believe that that was just an act she put on the keep the rest of the Shiranui at bay. The real Mai (if that was what he was seeing right now) was as shrewd and "street smart" as he was. Andy was beginning to feel bad for calling her a sheltered little princess.

"Why doesn't Hanzo-sensei just tell them to take a hike?" He asked. "He's head of the family and you're his heir. Why is he entertaining this idea of you and Koinosuke-kun?"

"My bad blood." She answered bitterly.

"Huh?"

"Because Okasama was so undesirable to the family and because I'm her daughter, I have her blood, Ojisama is afraid the rest of the family won't accept my as the next Clan Head. But if I marry Koinosuke…" She trailed off. "I don't like Koinosuke."

"I'm sorry."

Her head turned back to the woods, giving the tree line one final forlorn inspection before standing. "Its late." She said. "'Touchan wont be back tonight. I'm going to bed."

Andy listened until her steps on the nightingale floor fell silent. He then, after giving the white moon one final glance, he too went inside to bed.

…

The next day, as predicted, Mai was called out of forms practice to study tea ceremony under the guidance of Shizune-sama. She was locked indoors for the entire morning and most of the afternoon, emerging from the garden-side tearoom only once during lunch. Andy couldn't help but feel sorry for her as she sat demurely in her pink cotton yukata and ate silently under the watchful eye of Shizune. The moment she had finished the woman spirited back into the house and Andy had to wonder if it was really so difficult to learn how to pour a cup of tea.

After his tie with Mai yesterday, Hanzo-sensei seemed much more willing to let Andy spar with other members of the family. The blond ninja-in-training couldn't have been happier about this, especially when one considers the fact that the majority of Shiranui ninja were male and Andy had no qualms about beating other boys mercilessly into the dirt.

All and all, his day went remarkably well.

…

It was latter that evening when everyone was sitting down to dinner that Kazutaka finally returned, much to Mai's elation. She dashed from the dinning room when she heard his steps on the nightingale floor hiking up her yukata to her knees as she ran and almost knock her father over when she launched herself into his arms.

"Whoa there, kitten!" He said. "Where's the fire?"

"I'm glad you're back." She said into his chest.

Kazu set his daughter back on her feet and, crossing his arms over his chest, peered down at her and asked. "That bad, huh?"

Mai just nodded.

"Kazu." Hanzo had followed his granddaughter at a more leisurely pace and only just now arrived to greet his son. "You're late."

"I am sorry for disappointing you, Chichi-ue." Kazutaka replied, bowing respectfully. Mai hated these little verbal-dances the grown-ups in her family did. Hanzo wasn't disappointed that Kazu had finished the Course late, he was upset that doing so made them both look weak in the eyes of the family. Kazu wasn't apologizing for disappointing his father, he was apologizing for weakening Hanzo's powerbase. Rulers, whether they be kings or just heads of households, governed by popular opinion.

Hnazo scrutinized his son's appearance. From his matted and dirty hair to his torn and sullied shirt, the stained blue jeans, finally settling on the foot missing a shoe with his big toe sticking out from a hole in his sock. "You're a mess."

"Sorry, I didn't have time to stop at the spa." Kazu shot back with a hint of rebellious sarcasm.

"Where's the wakasashi I gave you?"

"The blade, the guard, the hilt or the sheath, Chichi-ue?"

"Nevermind." Hanzo groaned in exasperation. "Go and get cleaned up. If you're lucky you might still be able to get some food before your uncle starts pushing for more negotiations."

"Still?" Kazu glanced sideways at Mai. The girl's eyes fell to the floor, now that her father was back Uncle Nagare would launch back into talks for her marriage to Koinosuke. Kazutaka knelt in front of her and placed a comforting hand on her head. "Don't worry, kitten. I won't let my little princess marry any evil prince."

Mai nodded, knowing that there really wasn't anything her father could do. He had no power within the family, no pull and no supporters. His views and opinions were as insignificant as a drop of rain in the sea.

…

Dinner had been disturbingly awkward after Kazu arrived freshly bathed and wearing a clean Yukata. Andy was only glad that he had arrived late, just as everyone was finishing up and so didn't have to suffer through the tense atmosphere for very long. After he had at least one bowl of rice in his stomach, Kazutaka was dragged into the garden-side tea room to discuss the proposed marriage contract between Mai and Koinosuke.

Andy couldn't understand why they were forcing what he considered to be an adult issue on a pair of children, but then, there were still allot of things he didn't understand. He was curious but reminded himself that it didn't concern him and in a little less than ten years he would be gone his knowing or not wouldn't have mattered. The boy decided to retire to his room, which he would now be sharing with Kazutaka-sama now that he had returned.

The room was more than large enough to fit two grown men, especially when compared to the cramped two-bedroom apartment Jeff had had. He and Terry had had to share a room back then, but after living in separate foster homes for so long, the brothers were more than willing to share the same room. His own room at the Shiranui dojo had always felt less like 'his room' and more like 'the place where he slept'. Andy assumed that he had become acclimated to falling asleep listening to Terry's breathing associated the sound with 'home'.

Now, with the prospect of sharing a room with Kazutaka-sama, Andy was starting to miss Terry just a little more than he previously had been. His brother had always been his best source of comfort and now it seemed he had to look to himself for comfort and security. He couldn't live clinging to big brother's vest forever. Andy wondered if Mai ever had introspective moments like this where she contemplated having to do without the comfort and safety of her father or grandfather…

And then he did a complete double take. How had he jumped from terry to Mai in one flash of neurons? There was really no link-up between them. Cool older brother on one side, mercurial annoying girl with cooties on the other side. He decided it must be all the time he'd been spending with her lately and left it at that. There was no since in getting worked up over a girl that he wasn't ever going to see again nine years from now.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

Saichi brought up an extra futon and Andy helped the old woman lay it out for Kazutaka before he himself went to sleep. Tomorrow was supposed to be the first day of Obon, a three daylong celebration for the dead and he didn't want to show disrespect by oversleeping. That, and he planned to ask for Jeff's forgiveness for hitting Mai during their spar the other day. He had a feeling he was going to be breaking Jeff's rule much more in the future and he wanted his father to understand.

…

It was much, much later when Kazutaka finally returned from the meeting. He woke Andy when he flopped down on his futon, completely exhausted and sighed as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders.

"Kazutaka-sama?" The boy muttered into the darkness.

"Sorry, did I wake you? Go back to sleep."

Andy rolled over and tried to do as he was told but now that he was already awake he couldn't just fall back at the drop of a hat. He heard Kazu muttering softly as he tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable position and the boy hoped he wasn't the type that talked in his sleep.

"Kazutaka-sama?" Andy ventured.

"Mm-hm?"

"When you were a kid, did Hanzo-sensei ever tell you not to hit girls?"

"Nope." The man muttered, nestling his head down on the pillow. "He told me gender didn't matter one damn bit, in Manchuria women fought just as hard as the men when their children or chastity was threatened. 'An opponent is an opponent', he used to say."

"Oh." Andy thought about that for a moment. Jeff had told him that women were delicate and deserved his respect. Here it seemed women, or at least the female members of the family (trophy-wives excluded), were treated as a different kind of men. "My dad taught me not to hit girls."

"Well, then Mai-chan will be wiping the floors with you for the next nine years." Kazu replied.

"If I explained to my dad during Obon that I have to hit girls, do you think he'd understand?"

"If he was as open-minded as I've heard, then he already does."

"Oh."

"Go to sleep, puppy."


	7. Chapter 7

There was to be no training on the first day of Obon (or any day of Obon for that matter). The three-day long festival was to honor the ancestors and so all typical daily practices were suspended in favor of offerings and prayer (and feasting, lost and lots of feasting). The tradition was founded on the belief of a follower of Buddha liberating the spirit of his late mother from the underworld of the "hungry-ghosts" and as such had just as much to do with eating and drinking as it did meditation and prayer.

Meals were casual and the food plentiful so there was n mad-dash to get there first or rush to eat quickly before someone else ate what was left. The atmosphere was generally more cheerful. For the first time since arriving on Hagi, Andy saw the Shiranui as an actual family and not just a group of people that shared common strands of DNA.

Hanzo joked about a beautiful girl he and Yamada Jubei had both met in Kyoto and pursued in their youth, only to find out that she was actually a beautiful boy. The family roared with laughter at their elder's expense. Shizune told some antidotes about when she was still courting Koinosuke's father (who had apparently passed away tragically leaving her and her son with a sizeable inheritance).

Kazutake even shared a story about his Study Abroad in America. Andy found it fascinating but a little too tall a tale to be believable. Hanzo-sensei commented that the story might have been more coherent had Kazu not been hopped up on Acid at the time. Kazutaka smiled sheepishly and reminded him that it had been America in the sixties and everyone was doing it. They all laughed.

It reminded Andy of some of the times when Jeff would have friends over and they would all share stories of their adventures or misadventures from their youths. Some things just seemed to hold true universally, regardless of what country you were from or what social class you belonged to. When family or friends got together, no embarrassing story was secret, and all confidences were shared.

Andy once again felt himself longing to belong. Jeff and terry had been the only real family he'd ever known and that family had been short-lived. He could fit in here, he thought. If he trained hard enough and studied long enough, he could find his own little nitch in this family. But then he remembered some of the members prejudice against Americans and remembered that no matter how hard he tried he would never truly belong here. It was just like his foster families back in South Town, they were a borrowed family, none of this was real.

'Don't get attacked, don't get hurt.'

Hanzo-sensei, Kazutaka-sama and Mai-chan all seemed to like him, but none of the others did. He wouldn't have a place here. No. It was better that he returned to South Town like he planned to and killed Geese. After that he didn't know what he would do, but he wouldn't come back here. There wouldn't be anything for him here.

…

Evening rolled around and lanterns were lit. A small wooden tower called a "yagura" was erected in the middle of the courtyard and everybody gathered around it to dance. Andy held back and watched, not knowing the steps and not wanting to embarrass himself or his master.

He watched them dance around the yagura, sometimes switching direction or turning to face the yagura before continuing in their circuit. It looked fairly simple and Andy was sure that he could do it if he tried but he didn't feel much like trying at the moment. He was enjoying the cheerful atmosphere and didn't want to jeopardize that by jumping into a tradition that he was foreign to and accidentally insulting his host.

So he watched as they danced, every now and again when Mai would pass by she would turn to face him, as if trying to catch his eye. Andy did his best not to notice. He didn't want her to think that they were friends just because they had a few things in common. He wasn't here to make friends; he was here to learn the skills he would need to avenge his father's murder.

For three days the festival continued and on the eve of the final day everyone one brought white paper lanterns down to the shore. Hanzo-sensei explained that they were to help guide the souls of the dead back to the afterlife. They were set adrift in the ocean's gentle current.

Andy watched as their light slowly faded over the inky-dark horizon, wondering if Jeff was following those lights back to heaven or if he had even ever visited during Obon at all. Andy liked to believe that he had. It was nice to think that his father wasn't truly dead, that he still visited him in some form or another. It would be nice if Jeff could see him and Terry bring his killer to justice.

…

The morning after Obon was busy. Everyone had gotten tired of all the time spent with one another and they were anxious to get back to their normal lives on the main islands. Everyone was furiously packing and double-checking to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything (they, after all, wouldn't be returning to Hagi until next year).

Andy mostly tried to stay out of the way. He hadn't brought much with him and so didn't have much to pack. He had offered to help carry things for others in an attempt to be useful and not offend the Shiranui by being lazy. But they had sneered at his offer, saying that a true ninja should be able to carry his own things and not need to go sniveling to others for help.

Andy had accepted this; it did make since to him, and had then barricaded himself in his room to keep out of the way. He trusted Hanzo-sensei would send Kazutaka-sama or someone else to fetch him when they were ready to go.

They didn't leave that day. As head of the family Hanzo-sensei was required to stay until the last member of the family had left. Andy came out of his hiding place to find Mai, Kauz and Hanzo all sitting on the doc, their bare feet dipped in the water and munching on sliced watermelon.

"We were wondering when you'd come out." Kazutaka said when he sat down next to them and began pulling of the tabi he had been wearing for footwear since beginning his ninja training.

"Its nice having the island to ourselves finally." Hanzo sighed.

Andy finished removing his tabi and dipped his feet in the water with the others. "Are we going to do some secret training now that they're gone?" He asked, half curious and half hoping.

"No." Hanzo shook his head. "But it's nice to have things quite again. You ever fight with your brother much, Andy-chan?"

"Oh, yeah! All the time." Andy nodded. "Master Tung would usually have us spar against each other."

Hanzo chuckled softly. "Not that kind of fight, puppy." Then he sighed. "I envy you and your brother."

Hnazo didn't elaborate after that but Andy could guess at what he was referring to. When he and Terry fought it was because they both enjoyed fighting, it was something they shared and could bond over, there was no malice in it. That was most assuredly not the case with Hanzo-sensei and his brother Nagare.

Was it really just because Hanzo was the head of the family, was for all intents and purposes "better" than Nagare? Andy tried to imagine what he might think or feel if Terry ever became "better" than him. He would like to think that he would be happy for his brother but there was a little piece of him that he thought might, just might be jealous. Thinking of it that way, he could almost understand Nagare's feelings, almost.

The four of them sat in silence for a time after than, watching the play of light on the water as the sun dipped low into the sea behind the island. The evening stayed warm long after the sun had set and night set in, but Kazutaka ushered them all inside saying he didn't want the "children" to get cold. Hanzo-sensei couldn't help but ask if Kazu was including himself in that statement.

…

It had been nice training at Hagi, to spite the quiet hostility of the rest of the Shiranui family, Andy felt like he had made allot of progress and was quite pleased with himself. Even so, he was delighted to return to Hanzo-sensei's house in Mino once again.

The moment he passed through the gate into the inner courtyard and heard the familiar sound of the stream, its clear water babbling over the rocks, he felt himself relax a tension he wasn't aware he felt. Andy briefly wonder if this was what coming "home" felt like. In just another few days he would have spent a year with the Shiranui, it was the longest time he'd ever spent with any one family.

Even with Jeff, he and Terry hadn't managed a whole year before he died. Andy had always believed that he and Terry could never stay anywhere for very long, they were just cursed, he guessed. But he had managed to stay here, at the Shiranui dojo for a whole year without incident. Even with the rest of the family's disapproval of Hanzo-sensei training him, he had stayed, they had kept him.

"Are you gonna stand there and stare off into space all day?" Mai humphed from behind him. She stood on the small step bridge, her arms crossed over her chest, her travel bag over one shoulder, glaring daggers at him. "You're in my way."

"Sorry." He stepped aside, nearly tripping himself and falling backwards into the water. She pushed past him without comment.

Even with her here, obnoxious little prat that she was, he had still managed to remain here without incident for a whole year. Maybe his luck was changing, or maybe he was getting better, or perhaps Hanzo-sensei understood him well enough to know that he wasn't really a "problem child". Maybe he could keep living here. Maybe after he and Terry had avenged their father he could come back…

'No.' He shook his head. Hanzo-sensei, Kazutaka-sama and Mai-chan might tolerate him, even like him, but Nagare and the rest of the family would never accept him. No, after he returned to South Town it would be best if he didn't return. There wouldn't be anything for him here anyway.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

As nice as this place was, as much as he thought, no, as much as he knew he would love to live here indefinitely, he couldn't stay. After he left, then he would be gone and he would not return, he would not form an attachment to this place, this house or its people. He would only be setting himself up to be hurt in the end. Bloody knuckles and broken bones he could live with, they healed quickly, emotional scars… those took longer to heal and never truly close.

He would take what he needed from these people and then he would leave them. He would study, he would train, he would learn, but he would not love. Love was not necessary to a live lived in devotion to revenge.

Thus, Andy's first year in Japan was passed.


	8. More of the Same

The boat plodded to a halt just short of Hagi's rocky shore. This was to be Andy's first year running the course and he was determined to be the best. Hanzo-sensei had to boot Kazutaka out of the boat as had become the tradition since Andy's arrival in the Shiranui clan. Mai giggled at their antics while Kazu continued to argue with Hanzo over why he should be allowed not to participate, that he was a pacifist and that out side of training Mai-chan he didn't practice ninjitsu anymore.

Andy dove into the water headfirst and began swimming towards the shore while the others bobbed there arguing. He had been looking forward to this trip to Hagi all spring and was anxious prove himself to the rest of the clan. He wrung his hair out upon reaching the shore, it had grown fairly long in these past two years, he tried to shake-dry his dark forest-green tunic and pants as best he could but to no avail, the humid Japanese summer refused to allow him any version of dryness.

But he told himself he would eventually dry as he ran through the Course.

Kazutaka came trudging up the rocky beach behind him, mumbling and grumbling about how much of a hard-ass Hanzo-sensei was and how it was unfair to make him run this stupid trial every year. Andy just rolled his eyes, over the years he'd learned that, for all Kazu's complaining and disapproval of his family's politics he really did love his father and only kept up the act of a rebellious son for Mai's sake, because he wanted her to be an independent thinker and not just a mindless puppet of the Shiranui, be cause he knew that that was exactly what Nagare wanted to turn her into so that he could control her through her prospective marriage to Koinosuke.

When they were younger Mai had told him that the reason why Hanzo hadn't shot the idea down flat was because Mai would need Koinosuke's support when she inherited the position as Head of the Family, he feared that she may not be respected because of her "bad blood" that she inherited from her mother. But it was only recently that he'd figured out that Nagare was pushing the marriage because he planed to control Mai through Koinosuke and rule the family like that.

Andy had grown to share the popular dislike of family politics.

Kazutake sat on a large boulder just short of the tree line and pealed off his tabi and wrung each of them dry (or at least as dry as he could get them). He then pulled out a plastic zipp-lock bag that he had placed his two paper folding fans in to keep them dry during the swim to shore. He tested each one to make sure they had survived the trip and would be usable in a fight before hiding one up his sleeve and the other just under the collar of his tunic.

"So, Andy-chan." He said. "Your first time running the Course. Are you exited?"

The boy gave a shrug of indifference but inside he was bubbling with excitement and was struggling to contain himself. The Course was an obstacle course of sorts. Members of the Shiranui clan would navigate their way to the villa on the other side of the island whilst dodging traps that had been scattered throughout the island, and fending for them selves, searching for their own food, clean drinking water and safe places to sleep. Andy may be young, this may be his first time running the Course, he may be inexperienced as a ninja, but he knew he was gonna dominate this Course!

After living on the streets of South Town, sleeping next to drug addicts and schizophrenics, fighting stray dogs for discarded scraps of food, learning to pick pocket people and running from the cops, he was confident that he could handle a little ol' obstacle course in a forest.

"You're technically supposed to do the Course on your own." Kazu was saying. "But it's perfectly acceptable for the kids to ask for help from the adults whenever they cross paths. There's no shame in asking for help from a more experienced ninja."

"Okay." Andy was confident that he wouldn't need any help.

"Do you want any help?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"'Cause, ya know, I grew up doing this. I know where all the safe water is and-"

"I'll be fine, Kazutaka-sama." The boy cut him off, momentarily wondering if it wasn't really Kazu who was asking for the help. "My brother and I were both survivors back home, I'll be a survivor here too."

"Well, okay then." Kazu pulled his tabi back on over his feet. "Just scream bloody-murder if you need anything." He stood and disappeared into the trees.

Andy followed suit, crossing the almost uniform tine that separated the rocky beach from the island forest. The moment he did, what felt like a twig snapped under his foot and Andy had only a moment to register the sound before a rough cord closed around his ankle and hauled him up into the trees. He hung there, upside down, his arms crossed over his chest.

'Well, I'm off to a fun start.' He mentally kicked himself.

…

Ojisama pulled the boat up to the dock and Mai-chan helped her grandfather unload Andy's and Kazutaka's travel bags along with their own. She was a little jealous that Andy got to start the Course this year while Ojisama had decided to hold her back another year before she would try it.

Saichi met them at the dock, bowing low and smiling broadly. "Congratulation, Hanzo-dono, you beat Nagare-sama this year."

"Oh, happy day." Ojisama replied in a monotone.

Mai sighed as she balanced her travel bag on one shoulder and Andy's on the other. This was going to be a long few days before either he or her father returned from the course. The moment her uncle arrived things would get so tense; she didn't want to have to put up with that alone. True, her father wasn't well respected within the family and Andy wasn't exactly the best person to offer comfort, but they were the only other people in the family (aside from Ojisama) that she liked.

Mai would have given anything at that moment to be on the far side of the island running the Course with Andy. Dodging traps and navigating their way to the villa together. He may not be the best at offering comfort but Andy was defiantly her first choice to watch her back if she ever needed someone to.

The nightingale floor chirped and squeaked as she crossed it on her way upstairs to dump their travel bags off in their respective rooms. Mai sat in the nadeshiko room crossing her legs in front of her, a sort of passive rebellion, sitting on her knees with her legs folded under her might be "proper" for a lady but was really uncomfortable most of the time. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was here to rebuke her anyway. It was more a personal rebellion.

She sighed and reached over to her travel bag and removing her red and white tunic and decorative tails. She couldn't run the Course this year but she could still train on the field out back and if she wanted to be a match for Andy when he got back then she'd need that training.

Once again her mind wandered to him and she wondered how he was doing, how far he had gotten…

…

Andy seriously wished he had nails right now. The knot in the rope that held him captive by one ankle was so tight and the cord so small he really needed some to get it untied, nails or a knife. Shame he practice a "hands free" weaponless style. Freeing himself was made especially had by the fact that he was hanging upside down and the blood rushing to his head was making him dizzy. Some great ninja he was turning out to be.

"Kazutaka-sama!" The boy screamed. He couldn't have gone to far, could he? They'd been separated barely five minuets.

"Well, what have we hear?"

Andy tried to swing himself around to see who had spoken, using the tree from which his trap was hanging from to pivot enough to face the beach. Shizune, Nagare's daughter, stood just inside the tree-line, her arms crossed over her chest and her son, Koinosuke, standing by her side with an expression of schadenfreudien glee plastered over his face.

"Seems Uncle Hanzo's little pet got caught in a trap." She smiled her own smile of schadenfreude. "Should we help the poor little creature?" She asked her son.

"I'd appreciate it if you would." Andy said, knowing that neither of them cared what he thought. Shizune was weighing how much she and her father would appreciate being rid of the American eyesore against how angry Hanzo-sensei would be if Andy "disappeared" during the Course.

"Ojisama says we have to do the Course on our own." Koinosuke reminded her.

"You're right about that." She agreed. "But we can't have him gnawing his own leg off either." Shizune took out a kunai, from where Andy had no clue but he had gotten used to concealed weapons just materializing in the hands of the Shiranui family by now. She cut the line that held him captive, causing him to drop none to gently to the ground.

"Domo." He muttered, knowing full well that he wasn't welcome.

"Hn." The woman just shrugged of his thank you and returned her weapon to its concealment.

"You're lucky we happened by, Hakujin." Koinosuke sneered, no doubt attempting to goad him into a fight. While Andy had no qualms about beating the snobbish brats face into the dirt, he wasn't about to do that right in front of the boy's mother. He'd bide his time and get the annoying git latter.

"C'mon, Koi-chan." Shizune ushered her son away, leaving Andy on the ground, and disappeared into the trees much like Kazutaka had.

…

Mai had just stepped onto the training field when she heard Saichi chirping along the nightingale floor. She turned to see the old woman struggling to carry three heavy looking travel bags one of which was a military issue duffle bag, the kind her grandfather had kept from his time in Manchuria and Midway and she knew that her uncle had arrived.

"Let me help you with that." The girl said, rushing to the old woman's side.

"Oh, there's no need for that, Hime-sama." Saishi brushed Mai's hands away. "I may be old, but I'm not feeble. Besides, Hnazo-dono and Nagare-sama are taking tea in the garden side room, they might want you to join them."

"Please, Saichi-san?" Mai pressed. "I'd like the excuse to not have to go in there and sit through another one of Uncle Nagare's boring lectures about how everything about me is wrong."

The old woman scrutinized her for a moment or two longer before saying, "Alright. The story is I'm not feeling well and asked you to help me with the luggage as people arrive."

"Thank you, Saichi-san." She bowed in gratitude.

…

Andy trudged through the thick foliage, ducking under low hanging branches or hopping over raised tree roots. He was not used to this. He was used to semi-flat concrete sidewalks, dinghy and narrow allies with dumpsters and low hanging fire escapes to obstruct a person's path. They may have been cracked, grafitied and sometimes smelled of human waste but they were level, flat, functional and easy to navigate. There were no trails on Hagi, he had to find his way himself and hope not to get lost.

On top of that, the day was hot and humid and while the thick canopy of foliage did block out most of the sun, it did nothing to dispel the humidity of the thick summer air. Andy's clothes, sticky with sweat and still damp from his swim to shore, clung to his body in odd bunches and uncomfortable ways.

The day was hot and uncomfortable and he was thirsty. Andy found his main goal to be shifting from making it to the villa to finding some water to drink. Kazutaka-sama had said that he knew where all the "safe" water was. Did that imply that not all the water on the island was drinkable? Would the Shiranui family even go so far as to poison some of the water sources on the island in an effort to make the Course more challenging? No, they wouldn't do that. Andy was sure they wouldn't. Kazutaka's mention of "safe" water was probably referring to how easily accessible it was. A water source wasn't exactly safe if you had to repel down to it off a fifty foot drop, now was it? Or if it was infested with piranha or alligators or some other vicious predator (none of which were native to Japan).

Whatever the case, it didn't change the fact that Andy was thirsty and needed a drink.

…

Mai was out of excuses. She had helped almost every family member carry their luggage to their rooms when they arrived, she helped Saichi dust and scrub the whole villa and had helped her prepare dinner up until her grandfather had come to fetch her to dress.

She now sat in her room with her layers of formal robes laid out in front of her and was still trying to figure out a way to get out of sitting with her family. Everyone would be stagily awkward and read their conversations from the same scrip that they used every year. Nagare would broach the subject of her and Koinosuke, her grandfather would brush it off, and silence would descend until the rest of the family returned to their scripted conversations.

"Mai-chan, are you ready yet?" Ojisama's voice called through the shoji screen.

"Just a minuet." She responded.

Mai hurried to strip off her shorts and tank top as fast as she could. She managed to get her pale pink kimono and two layers of robes on before tripping over herself. "Oof! Ow…"

"Mai-chan, are you okay?"

"Hai, Ojisama!" She called back through the screen. "I'll be down soon." And then silently to herself she mouthed the words "Ow, ow, ow, ow! Holy (word an 11 year old shouldn't know)!"

She pulled the remaining layers of robe and hurriedly pulled them over her shoulders. Smoothing them out as best she could, she limped out of her room with a bright but strained smile on her face. "You didn't have to wait for me, Ojisama."

"Its fine, kitten." He offered his arm. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Okay. Never mind."

He led her downstairs and didn't comment when subtly used the support of his arm to conceal her slight limp.

"I apologize for my tardiness." Hanzo bowed before taking his seat. Mai was more than happy to get off her feet and sit with her legs folded neatly under her.

"No worries, Ani-ue." Nagare said. "We've only all been waiting for the Head of the family to grace us with his presence."

Hanzo glared at his brother as if to say, 'Shut-it!' but instead said, "Well, I don't recall ever saying no one in this family couldn't eat if I weren't present."

Nagare humphed and turned his attention to his food. "Itedakimasu." He muttered before taking a bite of rice.

"So, Mai-sama," one of the Trophy-Wives began, "I hear you've been busy helping out all day." She smiled sweetly.

Mai wished the really wished the trophy-wives wouldn't speak during these gatherings. They had no idea of the inner workings of the family politics; they were just shiny bobbles one of her cousins thought would pop out good kids. Uncle Nagare was probably going to make so offhanded comment about how carting luggage, scrubbing floors and cooking dinner was servants work and a "Lady" had no business doing any of those things. "Uh, yeah."

"That's very good." Nagare said.

"What?" Mai asked.

"What?" Her grandfather echoed.

"You'll make an excellent wife one day, Mai-chan." Nagare clarified, nodding in approval.

"Of course." Hanzo muttered begrudgingly.

"What?" Mai looked from her grandfather to her uncle in confusion. Had Nagare just approved of something she did? That had just happened, right? She glanced at the Trophy-Wife that had originally made the comment, the woman winked from under her thick dark lashes. Maybe she shouldn't think so low of the TWs anymore.

…

The pond was semi-circular, with low hanging vines dipping their delicate leaves into the water on one side and large smooth stones on the other side, one large bolder in particular jutted out into the center of the pond where the water was clearest, the perfect spot to drink from.

Just as he was about to strut down that nice flat stone to the cool clear water he felt his toe catch on a wire. He had just a moment to register the trap he'd triggered before a large pine log came swinging down from the trees on the collision course with his head. "What the Hell?" He shouted as he half-dodged half-fell out of the way.

"–Heck! I mean 'what the heck?'!" He amended his exclamation as he wadded over to the other side of the pond. "Great. They booby-trapped the water! Who booby-traps water? People need water!"

He pulled himself up out of the water by the low hanging vines. He was soaking wet again and evening was falling but at least he had water. Andy hoped Mai was doing better than he was.


	9. A Spare Hanky

Andy had taken to walking with a pendulum suspended a foot in front of him. He had used one of the trip wires from one of the many traps he'd unwittingly sprung tied to the end of a stick and a small stone for the pendulum. He did this because most of the traps he'd come across so far were sprung by small tripwires carefully concealed in the underbrush of the forest, whenever his pendulum touched something that wasn't obviously a raised tree root, he would stop and examine the path for possible danger. It had worked so far but this was only his second day, who knew what else the Shiranui had set-up to train their younger members.

His stomach growled loudly and he hoped he was close to the villa. Andy didn't think he could go through much more of this, at least, not for a while. To the mind of the twelve-year-old this was like marching through the jungles of Vietnam.

He paused when his pendulum caught on something. Bending down the boy carefully cleared away the fallen leaves and twigs that concealed a thin wire, pulled thought just a centimeter above the ground. Andy sighed and back up from the trap until he was satisfied that he was a safe distance away. He then picked up a semi-large stone from the ground and tossed it at the wire. What looked like a large wooden cage came crashing down over the stone, the bottoms of the posts it was made from had been sharpened down to spikes so that it would dig into the ground and make escape difficult. Andy was quite happy he hadn't been caught in it.

His relief was short lived when his stomach gave another gurgle of emptiness. He hadn't eaten anything really substantial since swimming to shore, he knew that there must be sources of food on the island as well as there was water (how else did the Shiranui expect their trainees to survive?). The problem was Andy had no idea what plants were edible and what were not. Back in South Town it was easy to know what was edible and what wasn't.

If it was something half-eaten and pulled from a trashcan you had a fifty-fifty chance of getting sick, if it was stolen off a hotdog cart on the corner it was perfectly edible, if it had fur growing on it, it was not, if it was lifted from a pastry shop, it was, if it was offered to you by a convicted pedophile it was definitely not. Things just seemed so much more complicated here in "nature" than they did in the big city.

Andy supposed he might give hunting a try. Meat was almost always edible, provided it was properly cooked. But then that brought up the problem of him not having any means of starting a fire to cook said hypothetical meat. Little by little Andy was beginning to realize that when he'd been spending the past three years training for the Course he might also have given a thought to how he planned to actually survive the trial. A ninja was always prepared and it seemed that he was shaping up to be a very sorry ninja indeed.

'You always leap without looking?' His master had asked one evening when he had first arrived, when he was still learning the language, practicing on what came to be known as the "Kanji Poles".

Andy had replied that he didn't and up until that point he hadn't. Back in South Town on the streets before life with Jeff, jumping into a situation before you knew what you were getting yourself into most often got you killed. Neither he nor Terry survived by being reckless. But here, now, he had done just that, jumped into something before being properly prepared. He had been reckless. Andy hoped this wasn't going to become a habit.

It was probably because he had felt so secure living at the Shiranui dojo these past three years. He felt safe, like a wide safety net had been spread out beneath him to catch him if he fell. But it was a false sense of security and Andy mentally kicked himself for it. After his training was done, after another seven years had past, and he returned to South Town, that safety net would be gone. He couldn't allow himself to become comfortable in this temporary security. Once he left he would be gone and that was it.

Andy's stomach gave another loud growl. It, apparently, didn't appreciate his reflections on comfort and security. It wanted to be fed and it wanted to be fed yesterday.

"Alright, alright." He said to his disgruntled and neglected digestive track. "I'll see what I can fine."

And for three days he trudged on like that, at a cautiously slow pace with his trap detecting pendulum held out in front of him and not a clue of what could or could not be eaten.

…

Mai wrapped a thin flesh colored bandage around her ankle. It was just a stupid sprain and would be gone in a few days but it still needed to be wrapped if she was going to train on the field with the rest of the family. She wished she were running the Course with Andy or that he didn't have to run it at all this year and he was here to spar with her.

Since their bout three years ago her grandfather had taken to pairing them up for spars rather often and (she didn't want to flatter him but) he was the best training partner she'd ever had. He used all the familiar Koppouken and Shranui-ryu ninjitsu that she was used to but there was a certain viciousness to his moves, as if he really meant to kill his opponent. He hadn't always fought like that, though. It had actually taken him a very long time after their first spar for him to agree to a second one and even longer after that for him for do more than just defend.

Andy's "I don't hit girls" rule was really annoying. But he had eventually gotten over it, Mai still wasn't sure how, it had been a gradual thing. And she was glad he had, he was probably the strongest fighter in their age group (not that she would ever say so out loud) and while she was marginally jealous, she couldn't help but be proud of him. She really wanted to be out there doing the Course with him right now or wished that he was here for her to train with.

There was one nice thing about the Course, however. Koinosuke was also out running it and so Mai didn't have to put up with being pared up with him for a sparring partner. That, at least, was nice.

Mai spent three days training with the other members of her extended family until the afternoon of third day when Shizune returned from the Course, dragging Kazutaka with her. He wasn't in all that bad a condition; really, he just happened to be bleeding uncontrollably from a wooden stake that had been driven through his leg.

"S'nothing." Kazu slurred as the family's medic elevated the leg and cut his hakama to get a clear view of the wound.

"'Touchan!" Mai all but screamed when she came out to see what the commotion was. She rushed to her father's side, interfering with the medic's work and being generally annoying (as people in a panic tend to be).

"'M fine. Just a flesh wound." He tried to give her lighthearted smile but only managed a grimace. "I've had worse."

"Mai!" Hanzo's rough, authoritative voice cut the air. The crowd parted to allow the head of the family through. He stood above Kazutaka, his arms crossed over his chest, not the image of a concerned father but of a collected leader appraising an injured subordinate. "Give the doctor some space to work." He ordered Mai before turning his attention back to said doctor and his injured patient. "How much blood has he lost?"

"Not as much as he would have if I had pulled the stake out like he wanted me too." Shizune piped up, perfectly ready to seize the opportunity and place herself as the hero in the eyes of the rest of the family.

"Hn." Hanzo just nodded that he had heard.

"'M okay. Really." Kazu insisted.

"Well, he's talkin' so I don't think he's gonna be dyein' on us any time soon and the bone ain't broke just fractured, muscle's torn to pieces, though." The doctor informed him.

"Will he be able to walk again?" Hanzo asked just a bit of emotion filtering through his detached façade.

"'Walk'? Sure." The doctor side with all confidence. "Fight? Well, that'll be somethin' to see."

"I'll leave him in your capable hands then." Hanzo strode back into the house after Mai. Before disappearing behind the sliding screen he turned to Shizune and said, "Congratulations on being the first one back. I'm sure Nagare will be very proud."

He found Mai upstairs in the chrysanthemum room, the room that Kazutaka and Andy stayed in during while at Hagi. She was clutching one of his haori and crying into the collar.

"Hey, kitten." He said, taking a seat next to her. "Don't worry, Kazu's gonna be just fine."

"There was so much blood!" She wailed. "Now he's going to go be with Okasama and leave me here!" She buried her face back in the collar of Kazu's haori.

"That oaf's not going anywhere." Hanzo assured her. "He's not hurt all that bad. Why, back in Manchuria I once new a guy who had a hole blown clean through his shoulder." The old ninja attempted a comedic smile. "He used to carry a spare hanky in there. Can you just imagine Kazu sneezing and pulling a handkerchief from his calf?"

To spite her current state of distress, Mai couldn't help but chuckle at the mental image.

"Kazu's gonna be fine, Mai-chan." Hanzo assured her. "Your mother's not gonna be calling him up to heaven any time soon." He kissed his granddaughter on the head before standing. "Stay up here as long as you need, I'll call you back down when your 'Touchan can see people."

"Okay."

…

Andy held a struggling squirrel in his hands, unsure of what to do next. The creature flailed wildly in his vice like grip, clawing and biting at his fingers in an attempt to get to freedom, its beady black eyes staring up at him in wild dread.

Obviously, his next step should be to kill it and then find a way to cook and eat it, but it was at that step that he found himself reluctant to continue. When he was younger he used to pull the legs off spiders or tear the shells off snails, but he stopped after Jeff had adopted him, he said it was cruel. How was this any different? If Jeff thought killing spiders and snails was cruel, what would he think of killing a cute, fluffy squirrel?

His stomach growled loudly, urging him to continue.

But then again, everything needed to eat. Jeff had always served meat at his dinner table, didn't the animals said meat came from have to be killed first? What was the difference between killing something yourself to eat and eating something that someone else had killed for you? You were still consuming another creature. Was the difference in how it died?

And moved his thumb to the side of the squirrel's head. Just a little bit of pressure and he would snap the creature's neck, it would be it and painless. Just a quick snap… That wasn't cruel, was it? Jeff would understand, wouldn't he?

Once it was dead he would cook it and eat it and everything would be fine.

But how was he going to cook it? He hadn't brought a lighter with him, nor any matches or tinder or whatever else a person needed to start a fire. He didn't know how to start one from scratch, that wasn't the sort of thing a person learned on the streets of a big city.

Andy thought of those with whom he and Terry had shared their abandoned warehouse home with before Jeff's adoption. The cast-off of human society. He remembered the empty oil barrels and trashcans they would light on fire and huddle around for warmth in the wintertime. He thought of the heroin addicts with their little candles and spoons they used to melt their crack. He'd never paid attention to how they got their fire, now he was wishing he had.

Andy looked back down at the creature struggling in his hands. What was the point of killing it if he didn't have a way of cooking it? If he ate its raw meat he's just make himself sick. The poor creature locked eyes with him, as if agreeing 'Yes, sick! That's right, I'll just make you sick!'

Reluctantly, Andy extended his hands to the nearest tree branch and let the squirrel go. He would find something else to eat.

…

"If he wasn't a ninja before, he certainly isn't a ninja now." Nagare was saying. He paced back and forth before Hanzo while the aged master and head of the family sat in lotus position, deep in thought. "You do know that he'll never fight again, Ani-ue, not with that injury. Not that he ever fought much before." That last part was spoken in a whisper.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to meditate!" Hanzo snapped.

Nagare paused in his pacing to glare at his elder brother. "Well, forgive me for attempting to care for this family! I thought, at least, one of us should!" Was Naga's venomous reply. "That boy of yours is useless to us Ani-ue, and he has been for a very long time. This family grows weaker with every generation. We need to form a strong alliance while we still can! It makes perfect since to pair Mai-chan with Koinosuke! The two of them-"

Hanzo held up a hand for silence. "Kazutaka will never let you marry his daughter off for your own ambition."

"Kazutaka is barely a member of this family any more!" Nagare roared. "His opinions should have no effect on how we conduct our affairs! Have you forgotten how he so readily abandoned us to be with that woman?"

"Kazutaka is my son and will always be a member of this family, Nagare!" Hanzo stood, a vein pulsing beneath the skin of his forehead. "And I'll not have you insulting the mother of my granddaughter so close to the Lantern Festival! You should know that its not wise to speak ill of the dead so soon before Obon."

"You're straying from the point." Nagare waved off Hanzo's superstitious warnings. He only held to old customs and beliefs when it suited him and that was something that had always bothered Naga. "The point is that you and that son of yours need to stop fighting the betrothal between Mai-chan and Koinosuke. Or do you want this family to tear itself apart after you're gone? The Shiranui will need strong leadership, not the idealistic whims of a pacifist's daughter."

"That is enough, Nagare!"

"Ani-ue!"

"I will consider your words." Hanzo moved to leave. "Now I'd like to see how my son is doing."

"But, Ani-ue!"

"I said I would consider it! Do not vex me further!" He snarled before slamming the shoji screen behind him.

…

Mai knelt beside her father and set the tea tray she had brought with her down off to the side. She pretended not to hear her grandfather and Nagare arguing from all the way down the hall. She knew it had something to do with her father's injury, Uncle Nagare was probably using the accident as grounds for discrediting her father in the eyes of the rest of the family or some other devious thing that would get Naga exactly what he wanted in the end.

"How are you feeling 'Touchan?" She asked with a strained smile. It was hard to be cheerful in this house with so many selfish motives and hidden agendas.

"Better than I was a few hours ago." He sat up and smiled sweetly at his daughter. "The Doc says I've gotta stay off my feet for a few days and after the wound heals I might need a cane to help me walk. Can you imagine me walkin' around like one of those ritzy million dollar troopers?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind, kitten."

From down the hall they clearly heard a roar of rage from Hanzo followed sharply by a shoji screen sliding open and then slamming shut with enough force for the sound to continue ringing through out the whole house. Hanzo entered shortly after that, looking tired and old, as if he had just aged another forty years in the past ten minuets.

"I suppose you both heard that."

"Only the parts where you two were talking, Chichi-ue." Laid up with an injury and faced with losing any standing he might have had in the family, Kazu could still manage to crack a sarcastic joke.

"What are you going to do, Ojisama?" Mai asked, standing.

The old ninja wrapped one arm around his granddaughter, pulling her close in a forlorn hug. "Mai-chan, can I ask you to make a sacrifice for your family?"

The little ninja girl looked up at her grandfather. "Ojisama… you can't be asking me to… I don't like Koinosuke!"

"I know, kitten." Hanzo ruffled the girl's hair, setting her ponytail askew. "But if you don't… perhaps I should ask a different question: Do you want to take over as head of this family once I'm gone?"

"Not if it means being forced into a marriage against her will!" Kazutaka interjected. "I won't allow it! We're people, not pawns and Uncle Nagare needs to learn that!"

"You have even less say in this matter than Mai does, Kazu!" Hanzo snapped. "Since you had to go and bust up your leg, now there's no doubt in anyone's mind that you'll never be a proper ninja ever again!"

"Mai is my daughter!"

"And she is my granddaughter!"

"Its her life! You can't make any decision for her!"

"That is precisely why I'm asking her!"

"Stop it, both of you!" Mai shouted over her father and grandfather's bickering. "'Touchan, I can handle this, I'm a big girl. I'd be a terrible ninja if I had my daddy holding my hand forever. Ojisama," she paused, "how long do I have to decide?"

"There's no decision to make, you're not doing it!"

Mai and Hanzo both ignored Kazu's statement.

"You should probably to come to some sort of decision by the time Koinosuke returns from the Course and Naga starts his ranting again." The aged master replied. "If you don't want to be my heir I will have to assign succession to Shizune or Koi-chan."

Mai wrinkled her nose at the idea of having to bend to their conservative and narrow-minded rules. She didn't see the family going very far with either of them as leaders. Shizune was to vein, far to self-involved to be a responsible leader and Koinosuke was shaping up to be no different.

"Thank you, Ojisama." She bowed. "I would like to talk to Koi when he returns before I give you my decision."

"I think that's fair." He nodded.

"What's fair is letting people live their own damn lives!" Kazutaka snapped.

…

Andy fell to his knees, clutching his midsection, his stomach heaving its meager contents out, up through his throat. 'Note to self: that plant I ate was poisonous.'

What he thought would be a simple obstacle course was really becoming an arduous test of survival. The Shiranui's traps seemed to have become insignificant when compared to his immense hunger, especially now that he had his little trap-detecting pendulum. His biggest problem was food. He hoped the villa was close, very close, like within the next day (if not closer) close…

…

Koinosuke returned latter that evening after dinner had ended. He swaggered in sporting a cut on the side of his head that left blood trailing down that side of his face. The cut was small and the blood dry. Mai had the feeling he had left it that way in an attempt to look tougher or stronger than he was.

Mai pulled him aside after his mother had finished fawning over his apparent 'success' at completing the course.

"Oh-ho, she wants to congratulate him in private." One of her cousins commented as she was dragging him away.

"Hey, shut-up. They're just kids." Another one admonished.

Mai pushed Koinosuke unceremoniously into the garden-side tearoom and shut the door behind her. "We need to talk."

The boy crossed his arms over his chest in a show of defiance. He refused to be ordered around by a woman, especially not one his own age.

"Fine, I'll talk. You just stand there and glare for all the good it'll do you." Mai snapped at his insolent gesture. "Your granddad wants us to marry, and I'm pretty sure neither of us wants that to happen. But ya know what, tough! Because we don't get to make that decision, so here's the deal: I don't like you and you don't like me, so, we agree to get married, fine. But however long down the line one of us finds someone else, we don't get in each other's way. We'll stay together to keep the family happy but you don't interfere with my boy friends and I wont interfere with your girl friends. Deal?"

"You talk allot."

"Do we have a deal?" Mai snapped.

"Yeah, fine." Koiosuke shook Mai's hand to seal the deal. "What brought this on so suddenly?"

"Nothing." She answered. "I just finally figured out that if I'm gonna take over after Ojisama I have to stand on my own to feet."

"Great. Except, I'm going to take over the family after Hanzo-sama."

Mai suppressed the urge to face palm. "I can see this is going to be allot of work." She groaned.

…

The contract was drafted that night and before everyone went to bed both Hanzo and Nagare had signed in place of Mai and Koinosuke whom were to young to sign for themselves. Mai felt as if her life had been signed away and she wondered what Andy might think of her for it.

Would he condemn her for her weakness or praise her for devoting herself to something larger than herself like he had resigned himself to bringing his father's murderer to justice? Why did his opinion even matter so much anyway? He wasn't one of them…


	10. Food, Glorious Food

Andy heard voices. That could only mean one of two things, either he was finally succumbing to dementia from lack of food or was close to the villa! He followed the direction of the voices and as he drew closer the sounds of human speech grew clearer until he could discern clear words. He broke out into a run. Sprinting through the trees he came out on the far side of the training field.

The blond ninja-in-training just barely remembered to pull off his tabi before entering the house and sprinting down the nightingale floor, creaking, chirping and squeaking as he went.

"Who's making that irritating racket!?" Saichi all but shouted, sticking her head out the kitchen to scold whomever it was that was barreling down the hall, making the floors wails with his passing.

Andy nearly smacked into her, only just barely managing to stop himself before the collision. "Saichi-san!"

"Oh, its you, puppy." The old woman crossed her arms over her sagging breasts. "And here I thought you were one of the quiet ones. When'd you get back anyway?"

"Just now." The boy answered hurriedly trying to see around her to where the other women of the family were preparing what looked like lunch. "Ya got anything to eat?" He swayed on his feet slightly, the past three days of not eating catching up with him.

"Lunch isn't ready for another hour." The old woman informed him.

"Oh, please?" The boy pleaded. "As a reward for completing the Course?" His stomach gave a loud rumble that could have easily been heard back out in the training field as if to add exclamation to his plea.

Saichi's eyebrows raised in surprise. "That, puppy, was impressive. But rules are rules." The woman shook her head. "Besides, it would just make Hanzo-dono look bad if his protégé couldn't wait one hour for lunch. No dice."

Andy placed one hand on the frame of the kitchen's sliding door in an attempt to steady himself, his vision beginning to sway in reverse to the swaying of his suddenly unsteady legs. "Just one little onigiri?" He made one final bid.

"Just one little hour."

He was going to try and continue arguing but the room suddenly tilted and Andy had one brief moment to wonder 'How did I get on the floor?' before blacking out completely.

Saichi nudged the unconscious boy with her toe. "Crap."

…

Mai walked along the beach pretending to be looking for shells or pretty rocks or whatever it was the people collected of the beach. She really wasn't all that interested in what she found, she was interested in perpetuating an excuse to avoid Koinosuke. He found the idea of collecting broken bits of shell or pebbles to be beneath him (but then again, lots of things seemed to be beneath him).

Nagare, in a vain attempt to get Koinosuke and Mai together, had insisted on training on the beach close to the water –close to were Mai was examining the sand around the dock for dead muscles. She would sneak covert glances at them every now and then, gauging where Koinosuke was in his koshijitus in comparison to her own level of ninjitsu or Andy's koppoujitsu.

She didn't think he was anything special, at least, not anything special compared to herself (of course, that could also just have been her bias against him talking).

It was one of these covert looks that she happened to notice Saichi coming toward her at a rapid pace (well, rapid for her). The old woman stopped just short of Mai.

"Sumimasen, Hime-sama." She began. "You were so helpful carrying luggage for me, would you mind helping me get something else up the stairs?"

"Sure." She was more than happy for any excuse to get farther away from her fiancé and his scheming grandfather. She set her pale of shells and sea stones on the dock and followed Saichi back into the house. "Wha'd you need to be carried?"

"Well, it's not exactly a 'what'."

They stopped just short of the kitchen and Mai notice the figure sprawled on the floor, clad in a dark forest green tunic and trousers with red-orange flames as trim, his blond hair thrown over his face obscuring his features. Still, there was only one natural blond on the whole island of Hagi.

"Andy!" Mai rushed to the boy's side. "Daijoubu desu ka!?" She shook his shoulder in an attempt to wake him but it had no effect.

"Would you mind helping me get him up to his room so that the Doc can look him over discreetly?" Saichi asked. "I figured if would only make Hanzo-dono look bad if it became public knowledge that his only apprentice had collapsed immediately after returning from the Course."

"Of course." Mai understood how much appearances mattered in her family. It was nice to know that she and her grandfather had Saichi as an ally. She hooked one of the unconscious boy's arms over her head and stood, taking as much of Andy's weight as she could and just dragging the rest of his body along the polished wood floor.

He was slightly taller than her and so his feet dragged across the ground making odd screeching-chips on the nightingale floor as the trio crossed to the stairs. Saichi lifted the blond fighter's legs as they ascended the stairs releasing them only to open the door for Mai when they reached his room.

"Special delivery." Mai muttered when they entered.

"The Hell happened to him?" Kazutaka asked, looking up from a sudoku.

"No idea." The girl replied while laying Andy out on a futon that Saichi hurriedly laid out for him.

Saichi called the Shiranui family's doctor to examine the unconscious Bogard. After taking the boy's pulse, temperature and asking Saichi to explain to him what had happened before the boy had fainted the Doc sat back and gave a small snort of derision. "The idiot's just faint with hunger."

"I should have just let him have an onigiri." Saichi muttered.

"Is that all?" Mai asked. "So he'll be alright?" She sat on the floor between Andy and her father. "That's a relief."

"Hm. I suppose the hakujin has become a sort of older brother to you." The Doc smiled. "I'll fix him up with an I.V. and then Saichi-san can fix him something more substantial when he wakes up."

"Thank you." Mai nodded.

"Well, I guess that's my cue to get my sorry ass back to the kitchen then." Saichi huffed and exited.

"Neh, Kazu, how's the leg?" Doc asked after she had gone, intentionally nudging Kazutaka's bad leg with his toe.

"Itai! Stop that you annoying-" He paused, glancing at his daughter before deciding it was better not to use the word he had been about to say. "I'll slap you with a malpractice suit so fast you won't be able to say 'not guilty'."

"Meh, you seem fine." The Doc shrugged.

"Oh, real great diagnosis there, Doc."

At this point Mai stood. "Sensei," she addressed the family doctor, "shouldn't you be getting that I.V. for Andy right now?"

"Of course, Hime-sama." He bowed politely. "See ya later, Kazu."

"And bring me some crutches when you do!" Kazutaka shouted after the retreating doctor. "I'm sick of laying in bed all day."

"You do seem allot better, 'Touchan." Mai observed. "You've got more color and energy."

"I told you it was just a flesh wound."

"Really…?" She poked his leg through the blanket.

"Ittai!" Kazu all but shouted. "Urg! Don't you start!"

She giggled softly at her father's expense. He probably was just fine and only playing up the injury because he had an affection for the theatrical and dramatic.

"So, how was your first day as an engaged woman?" Kazu asked in retaliation. Mai just groaned but offered no real response. "Hey, you poke my wounds, I poke yours."

…

The first thing Andy noticed in his waking moments was a stabbing pain in his arm, as if someone had jabbed a needle in the inside of his elbow and just left it there. Upon opening his eyes he found that that was exactly what someone had done. An I.V. hung from a stand next to his futon and was feeding some yellow-orange liquid directly into his veins.

"That bad, huh." He muttered to the ceiling.

"Finally awake, are you." Kazutaka's voice drifted to him from across the room. He was folding paper into various animals, vehicles, and shapes.

"What happened?" The boy asked while sitting up in bed.

"You decided to go anorexic on us in the middle of the Course. Not the smartest thing to do if you ask me, but if you were trying to test your endurance I'm impressed that you made it to the villa at all." Kazu replied as he unfolded the fold he'd just made and folded the paper back over the crease in the opposite direction.

"Urg." He laid back down on the futon. "So, now everyone in the family is now accusing Hanzo-sensei of wasting time and resources on teaching the family's techniques to a weak hakujin that can't even run a simple obstacle course. Great."

Kazu looked up from his origami. He hadn't expected the boy's first worries to be of his master's standing in the family, but rather of what his master would think of his apparent "failure" at the Course. Andy's misaligned priorities just showed how much he was being influenced by the family's stupid political bullshit.

"Actually, they don't know you're back yet." Kazutaka returned to his paper creation. "Saichi is very discreet and Mai-chan and the Doc can be when they want to. Mai was very upset that you fainted, by the way."

"I can't imagine why." The boy replied. "I'd think she'd be happy about it. It'd be one more thing she can throw in my face whenever she starts trying to banter with me. How could the family not know I'm back? I fell in front of the kitchen that was full of women. Don't tell me the Shiranui women don't gossip." Than Andy paused. "Is Hanzo-sensei upset with my weakness?"

Ah, there was the concern for his master's opinion of him. Any normal apprentice under any normal master would have asked that first. But Andy, under Hanzo's training in this stuffy and oppressive atmosphere was having his priorities skewed. He feared for his master's appearance and standing first and his master's opinion of him second. That wasn't the way martial arts (or anything for that matter) should be taught.

"Chichi-ue is just glad you're alive." Kazu said. "And like I said, Saichi can be very discreet. Imagine the looks that'll be on people's faces when you go down for dinner this evening as if you've always been here." He gave a short laugh. "I wish I could be there!"

"Why can't you?" The boy asked in utter confusion.

"I'm lame." He said, and the author didn't at all mean that to be a double entendre about how OCs are lame. Kazu pulled his blanket away just enough for Andy to see his heavily bandaged leg. "No stairs or walking for me. Though, if you want my opinion I'm fine and could walk if that over controlling quack would just give me some crutches!"

"Um… Kazutaka-sama, he probably isn't letting you up because you need to stay off your feet. He is a doctor after all." The blond ninja-in-training reminded him.

"T'ch." Kazu just scoffed.

…

Doc carefully withdrew the long I.V. needle from the inside of Andy's elbow and dabbed at the spot with a cotton ball soaked in antiseptic. The American ninja hissed as the stinging solution sent a stab of pain up his arm.

"Well, kiddo, looks like you're good to go." The Doc announced, tapping off the wound.

"Thank you." Andy muttered as the Doc released his arm. The boy went over to his travel bag and began pulling out the clothes he intended to wear to dinner. Since none of the other Shiranui knew he was here he wanted to make his entrance a good one, one he thought Hanzo-sensei might appreciate.

"Hey, Doc, how 'bout some crutches?" Kazu asked again.

The Doc regarded him for a second then held up and hand and asked, "How many fingers am I holding up?" As soon as he said this though he changed the number of fingers he was holding up and kept changing them at a rapid pase.

"Stop being an ass!" Kazu snapped. "You know I'm fine. You just like keeping me at your mercy, you schadenfreudian bastard!"

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Can I ask a question?" Andy asked as he pulled his dirty green tunic over his head and tossed it into a dirty laundry hamper in the corner.

"Sure." Said Kazu.

"You just did." Said the Doc.

"What's up with you two?" The boy unfolded the clean white tunic he'd chosen to wear and slipped it over his head. "You fight like my brother and I used to back when we were still together."

"We grew up together." The Doc said as if this were obvious.

"And this ass is just jealous because I actually got away form the family for a while and he didn't." Kazutaka jabbed a thumb at Doc as he said this.

"T'ch. As if! I love this family! What's not to love? Can't you feel the love?" The Doc scoffed. "No, if I'm jealous of you at all, Kazu, its because you got a hot and sexy wife for a while and all I got was… a medical license."

Andy began to regret asking. This obviously didn't concern him and he should have known by now not to stick his nose where it didn't belong. He tried to finish dressing as quickly as possible and excuse himself from the room.

"Ha! The truth comes out!" Kazu shouted.

"Don't flatter yourself. The only reason you got such a fine piece of ass was because I wasn't there to steal her out from under you. You know how women just can't resist rich young doctors."

"I'll just be leaving now…" They didn't even seem to notice Andy as he left. That was fine, let them continue their banter, it was no concern of his.

He slipped out, shutting the door behind him as silently as he could and made his way downstairs. The nightingale floor made its usual made its usual chirping and creaking sound as he passed over it and Andy couldn't help but wonder if there were a way for him to walk on the ground floor of the Hagi villa without making such an irritating racket. Saichi had once told him that it was for stealth training, he wondered if anyone had ever succeeded in walking silently on the floor and he wondered if he could learn it.

It would be a very useful skill when he finally returned to South Town to kill Geese and in the mean time it would certainly ease his stays here at Hagi. There was just something wrong about your own footsteps irritating the crap out of you. Andy liked things quiet. He supposed it was because of his somewhat rough childhood in South Town that made him crave the blissful serenity of silence but he wasn't going to get any of that ever if he was constantly making a creak-chirp sound with every step he took.

Andy slid open the dining room door and entered, announcing his presence with a soft, "Please excuse my tardyness."

"You're up!" Mai exclaimed in jubilation but her cry was drowned out by Nagare's baritone.

"When the blazes did you get here?"

The boy paused, considering how best to respond when Hanzo beat him to it. "I didn't know we were in the practice of teaching our ninja to announce their presence, Nagare." The old master muttered over the rim of his teacup. "But perhaps I was wrong. Andy-kun arrived earlier this afternoon. I'm surprised you hadn't notice yourself, you must be getting old."

The dining room erupted with laughter at the irony of Hanzo's jibe, because Nagare was the younger of the two. He bit the inside of his cheek, most likely to keep from saying something he would regret and took a long sip from his own teacup. "T'ch."

Andy took a seat next to his master and Saichi served him a bowl of rice with steamed vegetables and sliced pork. 'Food! Glorious food!' "Itedakimasu!" He said with just a bit too much enthusiasm.

"'Touchan still can't come down?" Mai asked, leaning forward slightly to see Andy from around her grandfather whom sat between them.

The blond ninja-in-training hurriedly swallowed the mouthful of rice and vegetables he'd been chewing to answer her question. "He and Doc-sensei were arguing about women and degrees when I left so I have no idea."

"Oh, I see." She looked back down at her meal.

They lapsed into silence after that, Andy trying his best not to eat too quickly and appear slovenly and Mai eating slowly and daintily, the perfect picture of the ideal Japanese woman. All the wile the rest of the family played through their standard script of mealtime conversation.

"So-and-so made good progress today."

"Oh, thank you. We're quite proud of him/her."

"Wasn't the weather nice today?"

"Yes, it was ideal."

And so on…

That was until Shizune paused in her meal to address Master Hanzo. "Hanzo-donno," she smiled that coy smile of hers that Andy had come to know meant she was planning something, "since Mai-chan is engaged to my Koinosuke-chan now I think she should spend the rest of the summer with us after we leave from Hagi. What do you say?"

This shouldn't have been news for Andy, he's known that Shizune and her father had been pushing the marriage between Mai and Koinosuke for a while, the fact that they had become formally engaged during his absence shouldn't have come as a shock to him. Yet, for some reason, he found himself choking on his rice.

Hanzo patted him hard on the back until his coughs subsided then pushed the boy's teacup into his hands. "Here, puppy, drink something and for the love cripes, eat slower!"

"Hai, Sensei." He gasped after a couple swallows of tea.

Mai's eyes had gone wide with horror upon hearing Shizune's proposition. She was now staring fixedly at her grandfather, awaiting his decision. She didn't want to spen the remainder of the summer trapped in a house with Koinosuke, his self-serving mother and ambitious grandfather.

"I don't know…" Hanzo began slowly.

"Of course, we'll have her back to you before school starts." Shizune added quickly. "We can't have the future head of the clan missing her studies, now can we."

"No, no we can't." Hanzo agreed, his eyes flicking between her and Nagare, studying their features and how they held themselves for any ulterior motive, he knew one was there but couldn't see it in their faces. His eyes flicked briefly to Mai, he already knew her feelings on the matter but still needed to weigh her discomfort against keeping up good family relations. "But I think this is a question better suited for her father."

Shizune's lips curled into a second smile, this one sly. Telling her to ask Kazutaka was just delaying the inevitable. "I think you're right. I apologize for my impertinence."

…

After dinner, Hanzo-sensei pulled Andy to the side and hissed in his ear, "Meet me on the training field after your meal has settled."

The boy only nodded before Mai came breezing by and latched onto his arm, pulling him away across the nightingale floor and out into the garden. "Follow me." She hissed as she dragged him along. Andy, for his part, felt a bit like a rag doll. She released him only when they were outside, the sliding screen shut behind them.

Mai lay down on the grass looking up at the summer stars. Andy just stood over her in utter confusion. Did she want something from him or was she just practicing to be head of the family by ordering him around uselessly?

He was about to turn to leave when she said, "Tell me how horrible it was in South Town."

Andy paused and stared at her dumbfounded. "Why?"

"To remind me that life isn't as bad as it could be." She answered matter-of-factly. "To bring me back down to Earth and put me in my place. Remind me that I'm a pampered princess and my problems aren't that bad in the grand scheme of the universe."

"Are you okay?" He sat beside her on the grass.

"I got engaged yesterday while you were away."

"Congratulations?"

"Don't be an ass." She rolled over onto her elbow to glare at him.

"Should you be using that word?" How was it that her eyes could shine like that in dark with nothing but dim starlight to reflect off them?

"What are gonna do? Run and tell my daddy or Ojisama?" The she sobered and rolled back onto her back. "'Touchan can't do anything for me anymore and Ojisama… Ojisama's always caught between a rock and a hard place."

"I'm sorry." And he truly was. As annoying as Mai could be at times he did kinda like her (in a big brother sort of way) and it did bother him to see her sad.

"Tell me about South Town." She urged.

Andy was silent a moment, he watched the bright yellow and orange chrysanthemums sway in the cool summer breeze and remembered how hot the summers were in South Town. True, they didn't have the same humidity that Japan was cursed with but with the heat of summer came the stink of warm sewage cooked in the sewers that ran beneath the city, heated by the summer heat, the fumes wafted up out of ever grate and man-hole on the East side.

He much preferred the humid summers of Japan to the pestilent summers of South Town.

"Well?" Mai urged.

"Summer wasn't as nice there as it is here." He began. "The city wasn't exactly the cleanest place in the world and the summer heat just made it worse. By the way, did you know that average rate of murders is higher in the summer than any other season? I can't speak for the rest of the US but in South Town I blame that on the waste…"

Mai propped herself back up on her elbow to listen to Andy's tales of poverty and woe.

…

As ordered Andy reported to Hanzo-sensei on the training field after Mai had finally released him from his story telling. He stood at attention before his master awaiting orders.

"At ease, puppy." Hanzo waved off his overly stiff gesture of obedience and discipline. He held out a small package wrapped in brown paper and tied off with rough twine to Andy.

The boy accepted the item and regarded it curiously. "My birthday's not until next month, Sensei."

"It's not a birthday present, it's a 'try not to starve yourself to death in the middle of a training exercise' present." The old man huffed.

"Oh." Andy quickly unwrapped the packaged to fine seven little mochi balls, or at least what looked like mochi balls inside. "What are…?"

"A combination of ginseng, rice, flour, and potatoes that's been soaked in sake for three years." Hanzo answered. "We call them 'Hunger Pills' and if it weren't for them I don't think I ever would have made it out of Manchuria, least not alive. I'll have Saichi teach you how to make them yourself tomorrow, but for tonight put them away."

The boy obediently retied the package and stowed it in his pocket.

"Tonight," Hanzo continued, "we step up your training. You're a good fighter, Andy, but I'm not teaching you just how to fight. I'm teaching you how to achieve your ends whatever they may be however you can. Either by strategy, trickery or subterfuge."

Andy nodded.

"You've already mastered the three most basic parts of combat, that of Te, Ude and Kata. Now you will begin to learn higher skills, those of Kakejin and Ashi."

Again, Andy nodded, though he didn't know what either of those two words meant.

"We will begin with Kakejin."

…

Kakejin, Andy quickly learned was a training exercise where the trainee was hung from a strong tree branch (or in his case a bar that had previously been used for pull-up) while wearing sacks of stones round his shoulders and waist for an undisclosed time (although Hanzo-sensei assured him that it would be no longer than eight hours… 'great').

The purpose of this exercise was to raise the trainee's endurance to a level necessary for hanging from ceilings and rafters for long periods of time while lying in wait for a target… like Geese Howard.

Finally, for the first time since coming to Japan he felt like he was actually progressing toward his goal, not just progressing but moving towards a goal, his goal.

…

The following day was the first of Obon and Andy was glad for the training that Hanzo had given him last night for there was to be no training during the three day long Lantern Festival, the celebration for the dead. Andy felt his resolve to defeat Geese and avenge his father renewed and in ever Obon practice he participated in he renewed his promise to see Jeff's murderer brought to justice.

On the eve of the third day, when everyone gathered on the beach to set their lanterns floating on the gentle waves of the sea to guide the spirits home, Andy whispered his promise aloud.

Whispering in English, he vowed to see to it that either he or Terry killed the man that had killed their father and hurt so many others in his rise to power. The kingpin of South Town had stepped on so many to get to the top but the higher he climbed the farther he would fall and Andy intended to be there when he did.

He set his lantern, Jeff's lantern, to drift on the gentle waves of the summer current and wished Jeff a safe journey back to the afterlife.

…

The family's stay at Hagi concluded, Doc finally gave Kazutaka the crutches he so desired and the man was finally able to leave his room, Saichi gave Andy a recipe for a simple variation of the 'Hunger Pills' Hanzo-sensei had given him, in the end Hanzo and Kazu had given into Shizune's request and Mai went home with them for the remainder of the summer. She returned her father and grandfather's waves of 'fair well' with a very rude hand gesture that he didn't even know she knew.

And so the three men, well, two and a half men returned to the house in Mino minus their precious little princess.

"How long has it been since its just been us guys?" Kazutaka asked after throwing his travel bag down in the entrance hall and leaning his crutches against the wall to sit down and remove his tabi.

"Never." Answered Andy.

"Since your mother died." Answered Hanzo.

"Ya know what that means?" Kazu looked up ginning.

"No?" Answered Andy.

"Absolutely nothing." Answered Hanzo.

"It means we can walk around in our underwear and just leave our dirty clothes wherever and belch as loud as we want to and-"

Kazu was cut off suddenly by Hanzo reaching into the sleeve of his haori and removing one of his concealed fans, the old master then proceeded to smack him up side the head with his own fan.

"Just try and do any of that and you'll be out on your ass faster than you can say 'exiled'."

"Hai, chichi-ue." Kazu instantly demurred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakejin an actual ninjitsu training technique (go ahead, look it up). Roughly translated it means "the hanged man" and is pretty accurate to what I described in the narrative.
> 
> Likewise, the Hunger Pills were also a real thing. There are several types, the two most common ones being the recipe mentioned in the narrative and one made from honey, grains (like wheat), carrots, rice and sake. There is also a thing called a Thirst Pill meant to stave off dehydration. They're made from pickled plums, sesame seeds or leeks.


	11. Yamada Jubei

The last month and a half of summer ran rather smoothly for Andy with Mai gone. Hanzo-sensei was able to focus his whole attention on Andy without having to divide himself between training his apprentice and grooming his heir. In addition to the Kakejin exercise, they also began Ashi drills, which were basically an advanced form of running.

Andy would be given a straw hat and instructed to keep the hat fixed on his chest with no way of fastening it but the air pressure created by running at a certain speed. Sometimes Hanzo would have him run with a long cloth behind him to act as a windbreaker and increase his air resistance or with sacks filled with rocks or sand to weigh him down. The calmative result of these drills was to condition Andy to perform amazing feats of long distance running in case he had to get out and away from somewhere fast (like say, a murder).

On days when Andy wasn't doing his rigorous drills, Hanzo would show him the more advanced moves of the Kappou style. The difficult acrobatic techniques such as Cho Reppa Dan and Ku Ha Dan and other various moves not named in the games because really, what real martial arts style would only have two serious acrobatic attacks like that?

As the days grew closer and closer to the beginning of the school semester Kazutaka grew more and more anxious to have his daughter home again. Every time the phone rang he would practically leap on it, determined to be the one to answer (often times injuring himself in the process thanks to his bad leg), hoping that it would be Shizune telling him that she was on her way over to return Mai to them.

"Moshi-moshi!"

Both Hanzo and Andy heard him gasp into the receiver wondering what he could have tripped over beside himself to make his voice strained like that.

"Oh its just you…" The shoji screen slid open and Kazutaka hobbled out, putting just noticeably more weight on his cane that he had been that morning. "Chichi-ue, Yamada-san is on the line for you."

"Ooh, I haven't seen him in a while." Hanzo commented, as he left the sparring circle, not even bothering to tell Andy that the day's training was over.

That was fine, Andy was used to it by now. Hanzo was a hard task master and drill sergeant but when his best friend, former rival and drinking buddy, Yamada Jubei called then training for the day (and sometimes the following morning, depending) was canceled. Jubei and Hanzo had been martial arts rivals when they were younger; Hanzo with his kappoujitsu and Jubei with his judo, two different styles used by two equally great fighters each striving to be the best. They had become friends in the war, being stationed in Manchuria together where they had met Tung Fu Rue (Andy was still unclear of the details on that bit, both Hanzo and Jubei seemed reluctant to talk of their time in the war), and they had remained best friends ever since.

"You stupid, jug headed, asinine deviant!" He heard Hanzo's incandescent voice roar. "No I will not bail you out this time you should have learned your lesson by now you brainless, sex-obsessed neurotic! Go stew in a cell for a while!"

Andy entered the house just in time to see his master slam the phone back down on the receiver so hard it made the wall on which it was mounted rattle. Jubei and Hanzo were best friends and so, naturally, Hanzo was the person Jubei called whenever he needed to be rescued from a bad situation. His "bad situations" unfortunately revolved around being picked up by the police for various forms of sexual harassment and molestation.

Hanzo stormed past Andy, down the hall to his bedroom. Emerging again a little less than five minuets latter, having changed out of his sweaty training gi and into a respectable looking hakama and yukata ensemble.

"Oi, Kazu!" He shouted from the entranceway. "I'm going out for a bit. Make sure you set four places for dinner."

"Is Mai-chan coming home?" He all but jumped.

"No."

Hanzo left.

…

Kazutaka was showing Andy what plants were and were not edible and how to make fire without matches or tinder when Hanzo returned with Jubei in tow.

"You don't have to lead me, Hanzo-kun." They clearly herd the old judo master protesting from the other side of the gate. "I'm not a dog."

"I know you're not." The old ninja responded. "A dog would be better behaved."

"How was I supposed to know she wasn't yet sixteen!"

"That is not the point, Jubei-kun." Hanzo thrust open the gate and dragged his friend in to the inner courtyard where Andy and Kazu sat. "You don't see Kazu parading around like an over sexed gorilla, do you? And Andy-kun, he's still just a boy! Do you want to teach him that it's okay to molest women on trains?"

"At least as ninja neither of them would get caught." Jubei muttered. "By the way, hi, boys."

Andy and Kazu both waved half hearted "Hey"s to the old master.

"Ooh, are you doing survival training?" Jubei asked, pulling out of Hanzo's vice like grip. "I remember doing that when I was younger. Hanzo-kun and I did it together; the 44th army division. They gave us some basic training before shipping us out to China. 'Course, Hanzo-kun already knew everything before he even started the training, in fact, I think he even showed our sergeant a thing or two, ne Hanzo-kun?"

Hanzo-sensei deigned not to answer; instead he grabbed his friend by the collar of his haori and pulled him inside the house. "I just laid down a good deal of money to get you out on bail, now you're gonna have to work off that debt! The washitsu rooms could do with a thorough cleaning and I'm sure Kazu can think of some other things for you to do after he finishes with Andy."

"You're putting me to work?" The judo master exclaimed. "And here I thought we were friends."

…

For such a dirty old man it turned out that Yamada Jubei was meticulously clean and did a splendid job cleaning the washitu rooms, unfortunately he took so long that Kazutaka had already set the table for dinner by the time he was done and Hanzo-sensei couldn't squeeze any more work out of him.

Andy entered the dining room to find that Kazu had not set four places but five. When the boy asked why Kazu replied quite happily that, "Shizune called while you were meditating and said that she's bringing my little Mai-chan home tonight."

"Yeah, and this jerk is refusing to let us eat until she gets here." Hanzo muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

The blond just shrugged and sat down, he noticed that Jubei-sensei refrained from commenting and since he didn't feel particularly starved at that moment he decided that he didn't mind waiting.

An awkward silence must have fallen over the party because Jubei felt the need to fill it with chatter. "So, Andy-chan, how've you been recently? We don't get to see as much of each other very often. How's your training going? And school, that's important too."

"They're both fine, I suppose." The boy answered.

The old judo master nodded as if that were the answer he had expected and turned to Kazutaka. "And how's the leg? Hanzo-kun told me what happened. Are you adjusting well?"

Kazu gave a noncommittal reply; obviously distracted by watching the minuets tick by before his precious little girl was returned to him.

"Well, I'm done sitting." Hanzo-sensei rose to his feet and left the room. "You can come and get me when you're ready to serve dinner for real, Kazu. Don't announce a meal if you're not going to serve it."

Kazu just huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

…

Mai arrived latter that evening to the great displeasure of everyone else. Shizune had returned her latter than promised, already fed and ready to barricade herself in her room until the start of the new school term.

Andy's breath caught in his chest when she walked through the door and paused in the entrance hall, bending down to take off her shoes and displaying generous cleavage that she hadn't had a month ago on Hagi. He knew it was rude to stare but the boy found himself unable to look away, so captivating was the sight of her generous bust, far to generous a breast line for her age.

"Andy could you take this for me?" She offered him her travel bad. "Andy?" Mai had to snap her fingers in front of his face a few times before she finally got his attention. "Are you okay?"

"Uh, fine." The blond ninja-in-training took her bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I'll just take this for you… I'll just... I... um, welcome back." He backup intending to carry out her request and deposit her travel bag in her room for her and nearly tripped over his own feet in the process.

"Hmph, some ninja he's turning out to be." Shizune commented when she too, paused in the entrance hall to seamlessly and gracefully step out of her getta.

"He's doing just fine." Hanzo said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're late."

"A woman is never late, Uncle." Shizune smiled coyly. "Nor is she ever early, a woman arrives precisely when she means to."

"So I see." He shifted his attention to Mai. "Did you have fun, kitten?"

Mai looked as thought she was about to reply but paused, casting a sideways glance at Shizune. Instead she said, "I'd just like to go and lie down please. I'm tired."

"I'm sure." Hanzo patted his granddaughter on the head.

"We had a fun time, didn't we Mai-chan." Shizune offered one of her patented pastic smiles.

Mai just smiled in return and tried to squeez between the adults to get away, before she could scamper off down the hall and barricade herself in her room Kazutaka came hobbling into to the entrance hall, his cane making a thunk thunk thunk sound with every step.

"What's this!?" He stopped when he saw Mai. "I sent off my little girl, who's this young woman I see now?"

"Its still me, 'Touchan." Mai answered. She knew that was just one of those games parent's liked to play with their children, a variation on the 'Look how you've grown!' statement, but Mai wasn't really in the mood to indulge him in it. She just wanted to go to bed.

"Mai-chan, look how you've grown!" Jubei had apparently come up behind Kazu.

She offered a polite not to her grandfather's friend and wondered when the adults would finish fawning over her so she could go.

At some point in the middle of all this Shizune slunk off. She was no longer the focus of anyone's attention and there really wasn't anything she had to say to anyone either. Sine her presence was no longer required she figured no one would mind if she left, so that was exactly what she did.

"That blood drippin' out of your nose better be from my fist, Jubei-kun." Hanzo muttered out the corner of his mouth.

"Huh?" The old judo master looked puzzled. "But you haven hit m-"

His sentence was just off by the back Hanzo's fist colliding with his nose with bone breaking force. The cartilage of Jubei's nose collapsed under the impact.

"Eh, what'd you do that for?" Mai blinked up at her grandfather in utter confusion while her father mouthed the words 'Thank you' behind her back. Mai was still young and blissfully ignorant of her pseudo-uncle's lecherous tendencies but both her father and grandfather were more than well aware of the old judo masters lack of restraint when it came to attractive young girls and Mai was quickly growing in a very attractive girl.

…

The next morning while Kazutaka took Mai out shopping for new school uniforms Hanzo along with Andy escorted Jubei back to his own dojo on the other side of the Higashiyama Mountains.

The train ride was relatively quiet and uneventful with the exception of one small portion of the rout between six stops that stretched between two schools who's semesters had already started for that term.

One girl, a high school aged girl in a short blue and white pleated skirt had been standing in front of Jubei, one hand holding her school bag, the other one of the suspended rings for balance. Jubei had reached his hand out to grope the poor girl but before Jubei's hand could even brush the material of her skirt Hanzo had lanced out with reflexes to fast for one so old and closed his hand around his friend's wrist.

The old ninja had shook his head in a silent reprimand and released the judo master's wrist. He then hissed at Andy, "Watch him."

Andy spent the remainder of that train ride keeping a close eye on the old judo master's hands, making sure they didn't "accidentally" brush up against an unwilling woman. He wasn't yet as "ninja" about it as Hanzo whom combined subtlety with speed in a way that made his actions seem almost inhuman but the ninja-in-training did have enough subtlety and brains to keep Jubei under control.

When an attractive girl or woman came within range of the old man's grasp Andy would ask him a question, there by drawing the girl's attention to them momentarily so that any possibility of Jubei being covert in his actions melted away. Andy had heard of his fair share of perverts back in South Town, while he and his brother had been lucky enough never to have fallen victim to any they had know people whom were not as fortunate.

Most perverts tended to be spineless. If they knew they could get caught they wouldn't try. All a person had to do to dissuade most molesters was to show a little confidence because predators preferred easy targets. If a person knew to look out then the molester would lose interest for fear of being caught.

And that was exactly what Jubei did. He backed down and behaved himself until they had reached his house.

The Yamada dojo was also set on the top of an obscenely high hill in another "small town" just like the Shiranui residence was. But that was where the similarities stopped. While the Shiranui house was traditional in its design it still boasted heating and air conditioning, electric lighting, telephone lines and in-door plumbing. The Yamada dojo was an old wood house, and by "old" I mean an old wood house.

Jubei led them into the kitchen and began lighting a wood-burning stove for tea. "Sit anywhere you like." He called over his shoulder to his guests.

Hanzo led Andy to what he assumed was a sitting room but was littered with magazines and books of a dubious nature.

"Ugh." The old ninja muttered while nudging a pile of Pinku Monthly out of his immediate way. Once the offensive magazines were out of the way he sat down and motioned for Andy to do the same.

The boy obediently sat down beside his master and began studying the magazine covers to his right with fascination.

"Eyes forward, puppy." Hanzo barked. "I promise that spot on the wall will be ten times better than anything in any of those."

"Hai, Sensei." The ninja-in-training snapped his gaze up from the erotic images to a stain of the shoji paper of the opposite wall. It was not more interesting than the porn but it was far less degrading to women.

"You did a good job keeping Jubei-kun under control today." Hanzo commented after a prolonged pause.

"Thank you, Sensei."

"I just might send you here to train over the winter holidays. He may be a lecherous old coot but he knows his left hook from his high kick and while he's training you, you might keep him out of trouble."

"Hai, Sensei." Andy nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on the stain on the wall and feeling resentful of Hanzo's apparent decision to make him baby-sitter to a 'lecherous old coot'.

Jubei returned not long after that bearing tea and brittle rice crackers with him. The three of them sat and ate, Andy sitting in silence while the other two swapped stories and reminisced about places and people that Andy had never seen nor met. He listened intently, hoping to catch Master Tung's or his father's name mentioned but neither was.

He knew that they (Hanzo and Jubei) had met Tung Fu Rue in Manchuria during World War Two, the one people whom lived during that era refered to as simply "the War", but he had never heard the actual tale. Not from Tung back when he and Terry were living with him, not from Hanzo-sensei in all the years he'd been living at the Shiranui dojo so far and now not from Jubei.

Jeff had once told him and Terry not to pester Master Tung about it, that the War had been a very painful time in his life and that it hurt to talk about. Was it the same way with Hanzo and Jubei? But they seemed to be reminiscing about it just fine right now, about all except for how they met and became friends with Tung.

After a while the tea grew cold and the conversation winded down and Andy reserved to ask, "So, how did you meet Master Tung?"

The two turned their heads and regarded him silently a moment or two before answering.

"I was separated from my platoon." Jubei answered slowly. "Tung-kun helped me find my way back."

"Oh." Andy said, feeling as though he had received only the barest minimum of answers. He decided that there must have been something in between the getting separated and the getting back that had traumatized them all to the point of being reluctant to talk about it. After all, Andy figured that if he were asked he wouldn't want to talk about his life on the streets before Jeff and that hadn't been anything like a war at all.

…

"I'll tell ya about it some time."

"Huh?" Andy looked up when his master spoke. They were on their way back from the Yamada dojo, sitting side by side in two of the few seats that had been available when they'd made their train connection back to Niigata.

"The War, and Jubei and Tung in Manchuria, I'll tell you about it some time." He clarified.

"Oh, thank you." The boy responded.

"Just not until you've grown up a bit." The old ninja amended. "Tung was like a grandfather to you and you deserve to know a bit more about him but not until you've got a few more years and a few more life experiences under your belt."

"Okay."

"It's a good story. The bitter-sweet kind that makes you feel sad and hopeful at the same time."


	12. Growing Pains

The first day of the new semester opened on a bright sunny morning, the humidity was at an all time low for the season and the tips of the first autumn leaves had just begun to turn red and gold. Overall, it was a beautiful day… and Andy and Mai were stuck in school for almost all of it.

Andy sat in his homeroom class patiently waiting for the teacher to arrive. It seemed to have become a new trend for teachers to arrive to class only after all their students were present. There were still a few moments before the bell rang, so he supposed this was okay, but that didn't stop it from being any less annoying. He had a feeling Hanzo-sensei would disapprove.

"Dude, did you see that underclassmen?" One of the boys to Andy's right was saying, talking to his friends in non-to hushed tones.

"There are lots of underclassmen, what about this one?" His friend replied.

"She's, like, super hot!"

And with that single explanation Andy knew that they must be talking about Mai because no other person in their age group would be classified as such. 'Cute', sure. 'Pretty' maybe. But 'hot', no. 'Hot' was reserved for movie stars and pop-icons. He didn't socialize with his peers very often but he had over heard enough conversations to at least know that.

"'Hot'? Wait, you mean that one with the ponytail and shirt that's two sizes to small. She's younger than us!?" The friend exclaimed in dumbfounded shock.

"By a year, yeah." The first confirmed. "Shiranui Mai from class 2-B. I'm gonna ask her out!"

Andy nearly fell out of his chair when he heard that announcement. He steadied himself right away but the damage had been done, the two students talking on his right had noticed him.

"Daijobu desu ka, Bogard-kun?" One of them asked. But before Andy could answer with the expected 'I'm fine.' his friend had a sudden epiphany.

"Bogard-kun! You live at the Shiranui dojo, right? You live with Shiranui-san!"

The two scooted their desks closer to his and the bent their next down to speak conspiratorially with one another. The two bombarded Andy with questions.

"So, what kind of music does she like?"

"What's her favorite movie?"

"Does she like ice cream?"

"What's her favorite color?"

"Are they real?"

"Have you ever seen them?"

"Have you touched them!?"

"What do they feel like?"

"Tell us."

"Yes, tell us!"

"C'mon, speak up."

Andy had absolutely no idea what to do. This was more attention than he had received in practically his whole life and they were asking the most mundane things that he had never even considered the answers to let alone actually knew them. He knew she liked Metal but according to her ramblings there were like a million different variations of the Metal music genre and wasn't sure which on she liked.

He never really paid much attention when either she or the rest of the family watched movies, opting instead to meditate or practice his forms. But the few times he had passed by the family room when she was watching a movie it appeared to be an American fantasy flick about a girl running through some sort of maze, but he had no idea what it actually was called.

She probably did like ice cream, but that was probably more due to the fact that he found it difficult to conceive of anyone not likening ice cream, it was one of his favorite foods and guilty pleasures. She did always seem ready and willing to walk with him to get some whenever he did.

Her favorite color he assumed was red because that was the color of her fighting outfit, but she also had ones in pink, blue, black and green so he wasn't sure. The one she seemed to wear most often was the red but that could just be because it complemented her natural coloring so well.

As for the rest of their questions… he didn't really want to think about them let alone comment.

Andy was just about to ramble off some excuse to get himself of out this awkward situation, something about how he was just a student of the Shiranui school and didn't spend much time with Mai when he was saved by the teacher finally arriving on the scene.

"Alright everyone, settle down."

"We'll talk latter." They hissed as the bell rang signaling the beginning of class.

Everyone stood and bowed to the teacher before taking their seats and dutifully taking out notebooks and pens, the perfect image of eager students ready to learn.

"As you all know you will be taking your high school entrance exams in just another two short years." The teacher began once the clicking of ballpoint pens and shuffling of paper had died down. "It is my job to prepare you for that ordeal. The high school exams are no picnic and your scores on them will decide what high schools you'll be able to be accepted to. So if you don't want to screw yourself over, I suggest you apply yourself!"

The whole class sat in shock for a moment or two. Did the teacher really just say 'screw'? Was he even aloud to say that? Oh snaps!

"I will expect you to do your best and apply yourself as best you can." He continued. "If you have commitments outside of school that's fine, but that is no reason to neglect your education. I expect nothing but the best from all of you and I will accept nothing but your very best!"

After that he launched into an in-depth and detailed outline of how he intended to run the class for the next school year. Every one scribbled furiously to get it all down, Andy didn't though. He was used to rolling with the punches and didn't see how anticipating the next subject of study would help him when he was still working on the one before it. There is no easier way to trip and fall than keeping your focus away, ahead in the future. A person needed to focus on the present and where he was, what he was doing.

One thing he did take note of though, not note in his notebook but just a personal notice, was that the teacher had said almost verbatim what Hanzo-sensei had said to him when first arrived in Japan. "I expect nothing but the best from you and you will give me your very best."

Andy intended to do just that, give his very best in all aspects of his life, both his ninjitus and his studies. After all, if he was going to kill Geese Howard one day he would have to be the best! Second place just wouldn't cut it.

…

When the lunch bell rang and the students were released from their toils the two boys held Andy back.

"Come and sit with us." They said, each taking one of the hapless blonde's arms and pulling him out of the room and out to the courtyard where the crowds were fewer.

"You brought your lunch, right?" One of them asked. "Or do we need to go back inside and wait in the line?"

"Well, I-"

"He can share ours." The other said. "After all we're friends now, right Bogard-kun."

"Uh…"

"Yeah, friends." The first agreed. "And at a sign of friendship you're gonna help us curry favor with Shiranui-san."

"I-"

"Sit, please." The two pushed him down onto a bench. "Oh, I'm Umino Mamoru by the way and this is Sagara Souske. We've been in the same class with you for the past two years but you never talk to anyone so I didn't know if you knew or not."

He knew. Just because he wasn't very talkative didn't mean he wasn't observant.

The day was warm and the courtyard full of cheerful sunlight but Andy couldn't help but feel a small stone of foreboding sink into his stomach. He didn't care much for romantic entanglements and considering the fact that Mai was already engaged and the extended Shiranui family was so elitist and conservative he didn't see how either of his classmates stood a chance; not to mention that the very idea of one of these shallow plebeians dating Mai made his hackles rise for some unknown reason.

"So," Umino-kun began, "does Shiranui-san have a boyfriend?"

"Well, no…" Andy tried to answer honestly. A fiancé wasn't exactly a boyfriend and it wasn't like there was any sort of emotional connection on either side. But Koinosuke was still her fiancé, she was still engaged, she was off limits. "..but she-"

"So she's available!" Umino was practically beside himself with glee.

"Well, no…"

"Eh? Why not?"

"Oh, does her dad have one of those silly rules about her not being aloud to date?" Sagara-kun suggested.

"No. Its because she's-" Andy was about to break the unfortunate news that Mai was already spoken for when none other than Shiranui Mai herself came up and brought their conversation to a screeching and crashing halt. 'Speak of the devil and she shall appear.' As the saying went.

"Andy, you didn't show up at our table for lunch." She pouted in a way that he suddenly noticed was rather cute, her bottom lip sticking out only slightly, one hand resting on her hip that was beginning to develop a more… mature feminine curve and her generous cleavage thrust forward just enough to draw attention but not enough to be overtly lewd. And what made the action all the more attractive was that she had absolutely no idea that she was doing it!

"I, uh…" He was suddenly finding it hard… no difficult, he was suddenly finding it difficult to think.

"We're working on a project." Sagara-kun cut in before the blond could make a 'dumb-blond' of himself.

"Yeah." Umino-kun chimed in. "Our homeroom teacher has outlined one Hell of a year for us and we're just trying to get a head start on some of the work. Right, Bogard-kun?" He elbowed Andy in the ribs.

"Uh, yeah. Getting ready for the entrance exams and all that." The blond ninja-in-training nodded along. He was fairly certain that Mai wouldn't appreciate these two trying to manipulate their way into her favor and while he had been pulled in against his will, he was sure that her ire might also fall on him if she learned of the sinister plot that might possibly have developed had she not interrupted.

"Well, okay." She went fishing into her school bag and pulled out a bento box wrapped in a white and red handkerchief patterned with flames and handed it to Andy. "Here's your lunch."

And with that, she left.

Umino-kun and Sagara-kun stared at him for long moments after that. Andy suddenly felt like he was being put on trial the way they were scrutinizing him.

"She made your lunch." Sagara observed.

"You live in the same house." Umino remembered.

"She… she's like my sister." Andy insisted.

"She called you 'Andy' not 'Niisan'." Sagara reminded him.

"She called you 'Andy' with no honorific either." Umino added.

"Its not what you think." He insisted knowing full well where their mutual train of thought was heading. "We just live in the same house, that's all. Her grandfather is teaching me martial arts, she's like a sister to me, a sister!" Andy felt his face grow hot and he knew he must be flushed. Curse his alabaster skin! White people's cheeks colored to easily for their own damn good!

"You're blushing!" Umino exclaimed.

"No I'm not!"

"You and Shiranui-san are dating!" Sagara deducted.

"But we're not!" Andy insisted.

"You rat bastard! You never talk to anyone. You do nothing but take up space and now you've stolen the hottest girl in our school! How in the world did you manage something like that!?"

"No! It's not like that!" Andy wondered if they were going to attack him in their anger. Not that that would really be much of a problem for him but he was so much stronger than all of his classmates that if her were to accidentally hurt one of them… at the very least Hanzo-sensei would be disappointed in him if he did and at that very worst he'd be expelled from school and Hanzo-sensei might send him back to America with his training only partially complete because he was a 'problem child'.

Before he had the chance to find out the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. He was gone, across the courtyard and halfway through the school building's door before the bell had finished ringing.

Perhaps it was cowardly of him to just run from a situation like that; after all, neither of them posed any sort of physical threat to him. But he had gotten this far without getting himself involved in the mundane melodrama of school yard gossip but now it seemed he had been pulled in against his will simply by know the wrong person. He wondered what Mai would have to say about this new turn of events…

…

"So what were you really doing during lunch today?" Mai asked while walking home.

"Quite literally nothing." Andy responded. Even though their mutual 150 Centimeters rule had long since been dissolved he was keeping a good distance from her as they walked.

The American ninja-in-training couldn't have helped but notice the dirty looks he'd received from his classmates when Mai had come bouncing into his class room as he was putting his books away and asking if they were going to walk home together or if had joined any clubs this year. (He hadn't, he never joined any after school clubs. For as long as he'd been in Japan he was a loyal member of the "Go Home After School Club".)

It had only taken the time between when the lunch bell rang to when the day's classes finally ended for everyone in his year to know that Andy Bogard was supposedly dating Shiranui Mai. He wondered how long it would take for the rumor to reach Mai's year. Probably not long at all.

"If it was really nothing then why'd you all seem so conspiratory?"

"Because."

"Because why…?

"Because of… because of the reason!"

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, the action causing her sumptuous breast to bounce in a very pleasing way. "Fine, don't tell me. I'll probably find out sooner or latter."

Andy had no doubt in his mid that she would.

"Kanna-chan asked me something weird today." Mai said, promptly changing the subject. Chidori Kanname was one of the girls in Mai's class and one of the regulars at her lunch table. Andy had spoken with her briefly only a few times since coming to live in Mino. "She asked me if you had a girlfriend. I told her I didn't know. I think she likes you."

Andy felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. Why was it that everyone was suddenly so concerned with dating and romance? They were thirteen for cripes sake! Well, he was thirteen. Mai and her friends were still only twelve. Romance wasn't something he had planned on having to deal with until he was twenty and had already avenged his father. Why was everyone else in such a hurry to pair off? Was there something in the water?

"Well?" Mai pressed.

"Well what?"

"What do you want me to tell Kanna-chan? She likes you –I can't imagine why- and wants to know if you might be interested in dating her. What do you want me to tell her?"

He paused a moment. "Tell her that if she hasn't got the balls to approach me herself then she hasn't got the brass to be anything but one of your friends to me."

"That's kinda harsh." She crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts together in a way that made Andy's mouth water for no logical reason. "I'll just tell her you prefer aggressive women."

"Do as you please."

…

Acrobatics training became all the more intense now that Mai was back. Hanzo-sensei was anxious that they both excel at the Shiranui's style of ninjitsu and he promised that once the both of them had mastered the difficult and complicated acrobatics of the style that he would begin teaching them to harness and mater their ki, something that took patience and discipline of mind as much as it did strength of body.

Andy was more than ready to begin that stage of his training. With the use of ki based attacks he could take out his enemies from long distances without having to fear for his own safety. They were the easiest way to kill a man, if not the least bit subtle. But that wouldn't be how he would kill Geese Howard when he finally returned to South Town. No, the man who murdered his father he wanted to kill face to face, up close and personally. He wanted Geese to know exactly why he was going to die. He wanted to see the look in the man's eyes as he realized that his life saw about to end…

Unfortunately for the blond ninja-in-training, his practice and study of the Shiranui-ryu and koppouken was being greatly interfered with. He and Mai had been training partners for a long time and it had never bothered him before, but now that she… now that they were getting older, were growing up, Andy was finding it more and more difficult to focus on his training. Mai's costume revealed almost every inch of skin that the young American fighter desired to see and he found it a most unwelcome distraction while in the heat of a match. He would have been more than happy to ogle her off of the practice field but, lamentably, she remained decently clothed whenever not fighting.

It was frustrating in so many ways and on so many levels.

Add that to the stress of his classes and the social pressure of his peers and you had the perfect recipe for the exact type of teen angst that prime-time melodramas were made of. Dawson's Creek… Andy's Dojo, The OC… The NA (Ninja Academy), or similar such titles might apply.

But all joking aside, the blond fighter was more than surprised that even after a considerable amount of time had passed that Mai hadn't confronted him about the rumor that he had inadvertently started about them. He had thought that it was at least worth mentioning during one of their walks to or from school, if not a punch in the gut. But if Mai had heard anything of their presumed relationship from her friends Andy heard none of it. He vaguely wondered what had happened with that friend of her's that had had a crush on him.

After that first day with Sagara-kun and Umino-kun, Andy had taken to eating lunch alone and away for everyone else, usually on the roof of one of the buildings. Each building had a roof access stair and the doors to the roofs were never locked (probably because the faculty had no need to fear suicides with the two and a half meter high fencing they have bordering all the building's roofs. Recently, however, Mai had started to join him on the roof for lunch.

She offered no comment or explanation for the change in her routine and he didn't ask for one. They would sit and eat, politely ignoring each other.

…

"So, are you going to the Homecoming Dance with anyone?" Mai asked in between bites of rice. He tone was casual as if they talked like this every day but this had been the first thing she'd said since she had started joining him for lunch and they both knew it. She refused to meet his eyes when she spoke. Instead keeping here attention focused ahead on the view of campus through the chain link fence.

"I'm not going." Andy replied just as mildly also not looking at her. "Its silly and time consuming. I'd be much better off training at the dojo."

"Apparently, Koinosuke got permission from the school to attend even thought he's not a student here. He's planning to be my date." Here she looked him squarely in the face. "I told him I already had a date."

The blond continued to eat his rice unperturbed, completely ignoring her implication. "So what do you plan to do when you get caught in the lie?"

"Oh come on, Andy!" She set her bento box down and focused all her attention on giving him the most alarming glair she could manage. "Its just one night out of ten years worth of training! You can't stand to take one night off? Beside," she crossed her arm over her chest and changed her gaze to look at him sideways, "everyone already thinks we're dating. We might as well make it official."

"What everyone else thinks and what the reality is are two different things." He reminded her. "Besides, what would the rest of the family say when they hear you're dating a poor hakujin fit only as a pet project to keep Hanzo-sensei busy while the rest of the family schemes behind his back."

"Fine." She gave in, hopelessly crestfallen.

"But, I can give you a list of guys in my class who'd be willing to gnaw they own arms off if it meant going out with the 'hottest girl in school'." He added, not wanting to see her look so defeated.

"Yeah, okay." She muttered. "I guess that'll do."

"Don't thank me all at once."


	13. Genki Tanjoubi

As it happened Mai couldn't go to the Homecoming dance anyway. Flu season had decided to come early that year and Mai caught a particularly nasty strain. She had to stay home sick from both school and dance. Mai regarded her illness as both a blessing and a curse; it was her salvation from having to stand through a "date" with Koinosuke but her salvation came at the price of being bed-ridden ill for five whole days, almost a whole week.

Andy, for his part, stayed as clear away form her as possible. He had no desire to lose five days of his own training from an illness. He was determined to stay healthy and grow stronger. A simpering weakling would not defeat Geese.

He did lament having to tell Sagara-kun, the boy whom Mai had chosen from the list he provided, that she wouldn't be able to attend the dance with him. Sagara had given him a scrutinizing glare when he'd told him, as if the boy suspected that the two of them were ditching the dance to be together alone. Andy had tried his best to ignore the boy's glare and brush off his suspicions. He didn't care what others thought of him.

…

After Mai recovered the first semester of that year seemed to fly by and before either of them knew it, it was already winter vacation with New Years and Mai's birthday fast approaching and for the first time since coming to Japan Andy wondered if he should get her a gift.

He had no idea what might have prompted this new dilemma; he didn't regard Mai with any particular sort of affection (least, none that he was consciously aware of). He was allowed a small allowance out of the Shiranui Dojo's account so he had the money to buy her something small but he had been saving that money for his trip back to South Town. He would be travel halfway across the world to kill a man and wouldn't have the time to stop and get a job; he'd need all the money he could get for travel and expenses. He shouldn't waste it on trinkets for a girl he only barely liked.

But she had been so forlorn and downcast ever since her engagement to Koinosuke and she was always so lovely when she smiled… His train of thought was interrupted as Mai dive-bombed him with one of the aerial attacks she had just been newly taught.

"Keep your head in the game, Andy!" She admonished him from behind her fan, punctuating it with a high-pitched laugh that had become her taunt.

"Hn." He got back to his feet, shaking his blond hair back as he did so. It was starting to get rather long; he wondered about cutting it but hadn't seemed to find the time to do it. Instead of reassuming his stance he flipped backwards as if doing a handstand but then sprang into an impressive and difficult aerial kick with both feet forward. "Chou Reppa Dan!"

Mai raised her fan to block the oncoming human projectile but she only succeeded in lessening the damage. The ninja-girl was flung backwards to skid across the training ring. "Andyyyyyy!"

Hanzo-sensei clapped his hands twice for attention. "I think that's enough for now." The aged master said, entering the ring and placing himself between his apprentice and his granddaughter. He reached a hand down to help Mai to her feet. "Daijobu desu ka?"

"I'm fine." She insisted.

"Su-sumimasen." Andy stuttered. He didn't know why but he was suddenly having a relapse into his initial horror at the idea of hitting girls, only instead of 'girls' it was 'Mai'. The young ninja-in-training suddenly found that he didn't much like the idea of hurting her.

"I'm fine, really." She insisted. "This is so embarrassing, I must look a mess." Mai lifted her broken fan that would now only open halfway and tried to hide her face which was quickly developing a dark purple bruise along one side, following the path of a small trickle of blood.

"But you're…"

"She say's she's fine, puppy. Let her have her pride." Hanzo ordered.

Andy obediently shut-up and watched Mai stager slightly off the training field and into the house. He counted to three before Kazutaka's exclamation of horror reached his ears and he felt another wave of guilt. The boy turned to his master, her grandfather and said, "Sensei, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"Let it alone, puppy. Its one of the hazards of ninja training." He turned to the boy and clapped him on the shoulder. "That was a wonderfully executed Chou Reppa Dan! I think we just might start ki techniques earlier than I had planned, if you keep progressing like this."

Andy didn't quite know how to react to that. Of course he was happy to be advancing in is training, any step forward was a step closer to avenging his father. But he was concerned for Mai and didn't understand how Hanzo-sensei could be so casual about her injury. If he had been in South Town and sparring with Terry under the carful eye of Master Tung, a hit like that would earn him a reprimand and a lecture on how fighting was meant to protect not to harm (a concept which had never really made sense to him).

After thinking about it for a bit, Andy realized that that must have been one of the reason's why the old master had sent him here to train instead of teaching him himself. Within the way of the ninja Andy could grow and flourish, developing his own natural fighting talents that were, admittedly, more vicious than his brother's.

Though, as vicious as he was naturally he really should have gone easier on Mai. She had just recovered from being bedridden ill and besides that, he did spend more of his time training than she did. Now he had to give her a birthday gift, as an apology for mussing up her face.

…

"What exactly did you need me for?"

Andy had asked Sagara-kun to help him sop for a gift for Mai. He was still in his classmate's ill graces for 'concealing his relationship with Mai' but the blond ninja hadn't really had much of a choice. He knew very little about girls aside from what he had observed in school and his observations only ever raised more questions that they answered. He needed help, so he had bit the bullet, as the saying went, and asked Sagara-kun to help him.

"I need to buy a birthday gift for Mai, I mean, uh, for Shiranui-san." It felt odd referring to Mai by her family name, especially considering that there were dozens of Shiranui but only one Mai. But he wanted to start making it a habit to formally distance himself from Mai in the eyes of his classmates. Maybe that way the rumors about them would stop, or at least die down.

"A New Years gift." Sagara crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't see why you need me for that. She's your girlfriend. Why don't you just get her one of the standard generic New Years gifts?"

"Its for her birthday." Andy corrected. They were walking through Mino's shopping district and he was finding it annoying to have to divide his attention between Sagara's prodding questions and scanning windows for items that were in his price range that Mai might like.

"Oh! When's her birthday?" Sagara was suddenly very interested. Of course he was. Almost every boy in school had a crush on Mai by this point.

"New Years." The blond ninja answered dutifully.

"Wait, I thought you said this gift was for her birthday."

"It is for her birthday." Andy snapped, getting a little annoyed at his fair-weather 'friend'. "Her birthday is one New Years, January first."

"Ah." Understanding finally dawned and Andy had to roll his eyes at the boy. "Jewelry."

"What?" The American ninja had to blink at the seemingly random statement his classmate had made.

"Jewelry." Sagara repeated. "Girls love jewelry. Ya see, Bogard-kun, girls are allot like crows, they like shiny things." He said in a mock-sagely tone. "If it sparkles or shines they'll love it unconditionally based solely on the fact that it's pretty. Girls are shallow that way."

"I don't think Mai's all that shallow." Andy shook his head.

"Oh, really?" Sagara flicked a strand of Andy's golden-blond hair so that it caught the muted winter light. "Shiny."

He understood where the boy was coming from, there was just one flaw in his explanation: he and Mai weren't really dating she didn't really like him. Shiny hair and all, Mai didn't like him like that. "I don't think…"

"Let's check in there!" Sagara cut Andy off. He pulled the ninja-in-training into a teeny-bopper shop. The kind that sold plastic jewelry painted to look real and brightly colored scarves or arm-warmers that either shrank, fell apart or lost all their color after a single washing.

Andy had to hold back a gag at the sheer brightness of everything and the fact that a good majority of everything was pink (or a variation there of). He couldn't imagine Mai liking anything that came from here. Sagara strolled over to a turning rack displaying earring studs in various shades of 'bright'. He selected a pair of bright pink heart-shaped studs and passed them to Andy.

"Here, these are cute. She might like these."

Andy had no idea whether or not Mai would like them, he knew very little about her tastes but he did not like them, no one bit. He wasn't about to shill out a portion of his meager allowance on something that would be an affront to his eyes every time they were worn.

"I think not." He replaced the studs on the rack from which Sagara had pulled them.

Unfortunately for him the earrings hung precariously from their over-stuffed racks and when Andy's had accidentally brushed the sides of the earrings hanging on either side of the one he just replaced they all came tumbling down off the rack to litter the floor with their sparkly and obnoxious brightness.

"Shimata." He cursed.

The fail-ninja bent down to pick them up, suddenly feeling very self-conscious, as he had just drawn the whole store's attention to himself. It was bad enough that he and Sagara were the only men in the store but that he had to make a complete klutz of himself as well… it was not very ninjaly of him to say the least.

A sales woman walked up to them and politely asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Uh, no thank you." Andy replied, feeling himself blush. Damn him and his stupid alabaster skin. His fair complexion colored far to easily for his own good.

"He's looking for something for his girlfriend." Sagara said.

"Ah, young love. How cute!" She smiled at Andy causing his blush to deepen. He muttered some sort of non-committal response and went back to picking up the sparkling plastic jewelry he'd knock all over the place.

"What sort of things does she like?" The saleswoman asked trying to help Andy as well as make a sale.

"Lots of different stuff." He answered cryptically; not really knowing what Mai was into he didn't have a hope of answering the saleswoman's questions. His best bet was to be as vague as possible. "She's kinda eclectic."

In an attempt to avoid eye contact with either Sagara or the saleswoman he turned his attention back to picking up the last of the earrings when one pair caught his eyes. It was a pair of plain pearl shaped studs tinted red. Not a obnoxiously bright cherry-red that most of its compatriots were but a darker, more earthy tone, almost the same shade as her red fighting out fit. They would match both Mai's natural coloring as well as her favorite fighting costume, which was good for her, and they weren't irritatingly bright which was good for him.

"I'll get these." He announced.

"Those?" Sagara asked. "But they're so… they're not girly at all! Are you sure she'll like them?"

"Wouldn't she prefer something a little more feminine?" The sales woman asked. "Or perhaps one in a brighter shade?"

"No. These." Andy was quite firm about it. He quickly finished putting back the remaining earrings that were on the floor, not wanting to spend another minuet in the glaring brightness of the colorful store and made his purchase.

…

December came and went and before anyone knew it, it wads New Years. Andy had wrapped his gift for Mai, or rather; Andy had tried to wrap his gift for Mai. The hapless ninja-in-training quickly learned that wrapping a bit of colored paper around an object wasn't quite as easy as it looked, least not if you expected it to look nice. Andy's wrapping did not look nice, it looked like he had taken white and red "Genki Tanjoubi" paper and crumpled it up into a ball and then covered said ball in scotch-tape.

He examined it several times over the course of the night trying to figure out what he'd done wrong. He picked it up while he was putting on the hakama and haori he would wear to temple with Hanzo-sensei. He had taken it out of his pocket to examine after prayer. He stared at it all the way back from the temple. Hanzo-sensei had asked him what was so interesting and he had hidden it quickly, feeling irrationally self-conscious.

He wanted very much to take it out one more time and maybe fix it before they all climbed onto the roof to watch the sunrise but he didn't get the chance. He felt it in the pocket of his sleeve the whole time they sat there watching the sun, like it was burning a hole in his haori. Finally, when Kazutake went to go prepare Mai's birthday breakfast and Hanzo-sensei went to take a nap he got his chance.

"Uh, Mai?" He prodded tentatively after they had climbed down from the roof.

"Yeah?"

"I, um…" He once again felt his face turning red and he hoped she'd think it was from the wind and the cold and not because he was nervous. Besides, he didn't have a reason to be nervous. He was just giving her a gift as an apology for bruising her face the other day on the training field. That was all, nothing more.

Andy withdrew the poorly wrapped package from his sleeve and flushed a deeper shade of red at the site of his own shoddy wrapping. The suddenly very self-conscious ninja-in-training turned away as he extended his arm out, presenting the gift to her in the least personal way possible.

"This is because… that is to say… I, um…" He mentally kicked himself for not thinking of what to say before hand. It was just a stupid apology gift anyway; it shouldn't have been this freakin' hard! "Just take it!"

"Andy…" She wrapped her hands around the messy wad of paper and was about to reach for his cheek and turn him to face her but he pulled away the moment he felt her hands on the package and ran, not ran, bolted from the room.

Mai was left standing alone, her hands still wrapped around what looked like a rather pretty piece of trash with far too much tape on it. Her curiosity out weighing her confusion she began pulling strips of tape off as neatly as she could (which wasn't very). The paper had been a very glossy white with what appeared to be the words "Genki Tanjoubi!" printed all over it in bright red letters that varied in size and seemed to follow a sort of cross hatching pattern.

He had gotten her a birthday gift?

Finally she reached the core of the wade of paper and out tumbled a pair of red pearl-style earring studs. She wasn't one for dangly jewelry, they could get caught or snagged on something to easily and they were nothing but an opening and a weakness when fighting. But she did have pierced ears and wouldn't mind having an alternate pair of studs. Mai fastened them in the vacant holes in her earlobes and shook her head a few times to make sure they were secure. Then she went in search of a mirror to see just how they looked.

…

Andy had barricaded himself in his room after that. He didn't understand why giving something as silly and trivial as a bit of plastic jewelry to Mai was such an ordeal for him. The blond ninja decided it must have been because he was self-conscious about his wrapping and left it at that. There was no reason for there to be any deeper reason and even if there were it didn't matter, she was already engaged.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

It had been forever since he'd had to remind himself of his old mantra but he began chanting it firmly now. Mai was his master's granddaughter and nothing more. They lived in the same house and trained together often, that was all.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

Besides, she was engaged. As soon as she tuned sixteen (the age of majority in Japan) she would marry Koinosuke and there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he did want to marry her, which he didn't, he would never be allowed to.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

He had been begrudgingly adopted into the Shiranui clan only because he was being trained in the the Shiranui-ryu and Kappoujitsu, that did not give him leave to have feelings for the Shiranui heiress.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

Besides, it wasn't like he actually liked her in that way, anyway. Sure, he thought she was pretty, but that was probably just hormones. He was at that age. Yeah. That was it! He was nervous in giving his gift to Mai because of a hormonal imbalance due to the fact that he was just 'at that age'. It meant nothing. That was it. That was all.

Having decided this and fixed that belief firmly in his mind, Andy relaxed. He wasn't becoming attached to Mai in any way. He was just going through a phase and it would eventually pass, like water through his cupped hands. No. That wasn't an accurate metaphor; his cupped hands indicated that he wanted to keep his 'feelings' for Mai that he didn't want to louse them or her. No, it was more like water under a bridge, yes. It was just a natural order of things. It would pass.

Just as he was finally relaxing, comfortable in the knowledge that he wasn't really liking Mai none other than the spirited little minx herself came barging into his room. Sliding the door open without even bothering to knock.

"Domo!" She threw her arms around him in a warm hug, her breasts pressing against his chest in a way that elicited a feeling of inappropriate excitement in him.

"M-Mai!" He exclaimed while trying to pull himself away from her. Or at least, if she wouldn't let go to at least distance his lower half from hers enough so as not to disturbed her with his… solid adrenaline. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to thank you for my birthday present." She said hugging him tighter and refusing to let go. "Stop struggling and let me thank you. I thought you got over you thing about hugging."

"I…" God, had her hair always smelled that nice? "You're welcome. But you should go." He managed to get his hands up under her armpits and push her away, his thumbs brushing against the wire of her bra. His face turned an even deeper shade of crimson than it had before when he realized what he had touched and what that particular item of clothing contained. He quickly turned his back to her and adjusted the front of his hakama so as not to cue her in to the nature of his discomfort.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" He hadn't meant for it to sound snappy but it did and he regretted it.

"Look I'm sorry I hugged you, okay." She sounded dejected. "I was just so surprised that you gave me a birthday gift, you've never done that before. I guess I got a little overly exited."

Oh, she was exited, if she only knew the effect she was having on him right now. "It wasn't a birthday gift, it was an 'I'm sorry I mussed-up your face' gift."

"Oh." She touched the side of her face where the dark bruise he had given her was just starting to fade. "Well, thank you." She turned as if the leave then turned at the door. "Andy… um, wanna go out for ice cream latter?"

"What?" He turned back around to face her, momentarily forgetting the original reason why he had tuned his back in the first place.

Her eyes flecked downward and back up again that he almost didn't notice but it was clear from the subtle coloring of her cheeks that she knew what it meant. Still, he had to commend her for her composure; she made no comment about it and maintained a strait face while repeating her offer (with only one slip-up).

"Do you want to go and get some ice cream with me latter? The first ice cream of the new year. It can be much later if you prefer. Just come and get me when you're done- ready! Just come and get me when you're ready."

The subtle blush that had colored her own cheeks turned its own shade of vibrant pink at her slip-up and she bolted from his room, shutting the door behind her afterwards, not even bothering to hear his reply.


	14. This Difficult?

Winter faded into spring, spring to summer and before they knew it the school term had ended and everyone was preparing for another trip to Hagi.

Andy counted out a few of the Hunger Pills Hanzo-sensei had given him the previous year and sealed them in a small zip-lock bag which he then stowed in his pants pocket. Both Hanzo and Kazutaka had spent the last year teaching him the outdoor survival skills he needed for the course but had skipped over in his haste to advance in his actual martial arts. But he still didn't want to take any needless chances so the Hunger Pills were coming with him.

Mai also stowed her sensu fans in a zip-lock bag of her own, though Andy did not see where she placed it on her body. Knowing Mai and where she concealed her fans normally it was probably better that he hadn't. She tightened her ponytail before putting one foot on the speedboat's railing, intending to dive into the water.

"Don't you want to take your earrings off first, Mai-chan?" Kazu asked, indicating the cheap plastic studs she wore. "They might get lost."

Andy's face colored at their mention. They were cheap and of a poor quality, the red paint had already begun to chip off in places and they weren't even a year old yet. But Mai still wore them almost every day and he couldn't figure out why.

Mai ran a hand over here ear, feeling the smooth pearl-style stud. "They're my good-luck charm, 'Touchan."

And with that she dove off the side of the boat and began swimming to shore.

"Best follow after her, puppy." Hanzo ordered. "Don't want her getting to much of a head start on you now."

"Hai, Sensei." The boy followed Mai over the rail and began his own swim toward shore with long purposeful strokes.

Mai had already reached the rocky beach by the time he got there. She was wringing out the tails of her costume and squeezing water from her damp hair sending streams of clear sea water down her front and between her breasts. Andy swallowed a lump n his throat.

"I don't care if it is summer." She said when he got closer. "That water is cold!"

And it must have been. Now that he was closer, Andy could clearly see her nipples poking through the fabric of her tunic. He felt himself go rigid at the sight and stuttered slightly when he said, "W-we should get moving."

He made for the tree-line at a brisk walk that was just short of a run.

"Of course." She muttered. Mai jogged lightly to catch up with him then fell into step beside him.

"We're supposed to do the course alone." He reminded her, a slight blush rising to his cheeks as he couldn't help but notice that her still wet breasts bounced in a most pleasing way when she jogged.

"I know, but you got to do this last year and I didn't. I thought maybe you could give me a few pointers? I won't tell if you won't." She got very close when she said this, her breast almost brushing against his arm.

"Well, I… wah!" His incomplete stuttering was cut off suddenly when his ankle was caught in one of those oh-so-annoying concealed traps. It lifted him up off the ground and left him hanging upside-down from a tree. Worst of all, however, he had sinking feeling that this might be the very same trap that had caught him last year.

"You okay?" Mai asked, turning her head sideways to better look at him.

"Just fine…" He grumbled.

"Okay, well I think you're right." She continued. "I probably should do this on my own." She turned to leave, the tails of her costume swaying slightly, teasing him with the possibility of a glimpse of her ass but not delivering. Then she paused and turned. "Do you want me to help you get down first?"

"No, I'm fine." He crossed his arms over his chest in defiance, the action failing at everything he'd meant it to convey do to his inverted and utterly ridiculous position.

"Well, if you're sure…" She left, disappearing into the trees like a fae.

Once she was gone he muttered to the headless trees, "Stupid. Stupid! Stupid!" And probably would have kicked himself had he been in a position were he was able to. "You've been though this before! You should have known to watch for traps instead of starring at her tits! Rawrr!"

He strained to pull his foot free from the tabi that he wore, pointing his toe and squeezing a finger under the cord that held him in an attempt to loosen it. He was finally able to pull his foot free from his boot like sock and fell to the ground. Reclaiming a standing position he retrieved his tabi from the trap that still hung from the tree.

"Stupid." Andy muttered as he sat down in the underbrush and massaged his ankle where the cord had cut into it before pulling his tabi back on his foot. "Stupid me. Stupid sexy Mai. Stupid hormones!" He scratched absentmindedly at his acne. "Things shouldn't be this difficult!"

The boy stood and tested to make sure his ankle wasn't permanently damaged and that he still had full control over his foot before likewise disappearing through the trees as Mai had done.

…

"Its gonna be quiet for a few days with the kids gone." Hanzo mused as he and Kazutaka pulled the boat up to the dock and tied it off. "At least, quiet for our family. Things are never truly quiet whenever Nagare's in the room."

Kazu gave a snort. "Ah, Uncle Nagare, a man that can light up a room simply by leaving it."

The two men laughed.

"So, what do you think Chichi-ue?" Kazutaka asked as he climbed out of the boat. He leaned on his cane and reached a hand down to help the older man out of the boat.

Hanzo waved off the offered hand. "About what? I think of lots of things, brat."

"Of Mai-chan and Andy-chan."

"Their training is progressing well, Andy especially. He's advancing much more quickly than I would have expected. He just might make his ten-year deadline after all. And Mai's doing well as well. I'm sure Shizune would want to try taking over her kunoichi training this summer."

"Uh…" That hadn't exactly been the purpose of Kazu's question but he supposed that it was better not to press. Kazutaka liked the boy and he was not blind to the things that went on in his own house. Mai might be engaged to Koinosuke but her heart was leaning more towards Andy. He would rather have his daughter marry for love rather than family politics, unfortunately family politics would win out.

"Do not ask those kinds of questions here." Hanzo said suddenly and cryptically.

"Huh?"

"I'm not a fool, Kazu, neither am I a blind idiot." He glanced sideways at his son. "It has not escaped my notice that Andy bought Mai a gift for her birthday or that that was the only thing he's spent his allowance on since coming to live with us. Neither have I failed to notice that Mai has not taken those earrings off since she got them. But nothing can come of it, Kazu, the clan would never allow another imprudent marriage."

Kazutaka avoided his father's eyes knowing that the man was referring to his marriage to Mai's mother. "As I recall they didn't allow the first one, Chichi-ue."

"Besides," Hanzo continued, ignoring his son's statement, "they're only thirteen, its just puppy-love. It'll pass and they'll both feel silly for having it. They're just children and Andy has a goal to a achieve before he'll seriously think of women as anything more than differently shaped people."

"I suppose…" Kazu begrudgingly agreed.

…

Mai listened for a little while as Andy's indistinct roars of rage rang through out the foliage. He had probably insisted she leave because he didn't want her to bear witness to his hissy-fit. Honestly, it was just a trap; they had both been warned that the island was covered in them; there was no reason to get that mad about it.

She shrugged her elegant shoulders and pulled out the plastic bag that contained her fans. Mai hadn't see what kind of trigger the trap that had caught Andy had used but she was fairly certain that whatever trips the traps had would be concealed just below the underbrush, low enough to not be seen but still high enough to be tripped on.

"Ka Cho Sen!" The young kunoichi-in-training sent one of her fans flying through the underbrush ahead of her making sure that the fan sailed as low to the ground as it could without skidding to a halt prematurely.

He fan sailed parallel to the ground for a few paces until it was finally stopped, embedding itself in the raised root of a tree. No trap had been triggered by the exercise. Mai hadn't really expected any, they wouldn't be silly enough to place a second trap so close to the one that had already ensnared Andy. No, they would space them out in random patterns through out the island.

The red ninja-girl retrieved her fan and continued through the Course.

…

The first thing Andy did after freeing himself from the trap and making sure that his ankle and foot were both in working order was to created another "trap detector". Like the one he had used the previous year to warn him of trip-wires for traps before he stepped on them.

He plucked a hair from his golden head, it had been getting rather long recently and was already well below his shoulders. He tied one end of his air to a stick that he could hold out at a distance in front of him and on the other end he attached a small pebble for a weight.

Confident that this new pendulum would work as well as its predecessor had he set off on his way. He was determined to do better in the Course this year and rectify his embarrassment from the previous year. He was more experienced now and better prepared, he was confident.


	15. If Only, If Only

Andy did have an easier time with the Course this year than the last and he was glad for it. He had only been three days out on the island before the sounds of the villa reached his ears. He approached the back garden with a light heart and high spirits, confident that he had made some sort of record. The boy hopped over the short garden fence and, stepping carefully between the vegetables that Shaichi was growing there, made his way purposefully toward the house.

"Tadaima!" He called, sliding open the back door.

"Oh, we were wondering where you were." Saichi came smiling out to great him. "Mai-hime returned just yesterday. We were afraid you'd gone and starved yourself half to death again."

"But, I…" Andy sputtered. He had thought that he'd done really well this time! He thought that he had beaten his old time and maybe even set a new record, he'd thought that he'd really shown his merit, he at least thought that he had arrived back in better condition than he had last year.

He followed Saichi over to the score table mounted on the wall and watched her write his name on it along with the day and time. Mai had beaten him by eleven hours, drat! His only conciliation was, of all the names listed; Koinosuke's was not on the list. He had at least beaten the clan's "prince". Andy wasn't quite sure why this small detail gave him comfort but he figured it was probably best not to analyze it to deeply.

"Do you want anything to snack on right now?" Shaichi asked.

"No." Andy replied forlornly. "I'll wait until lunch."

…

Hanzo dragged him out to train on the beach after that. They went through the forms and routines that Andy had long since mastered as a warm-up before the old ninja and he began a spar. For an old man in the decline of his life he was wicked fast and stronger than he appeared. Andy had long since learned not to take his master lighting just because he looked weak. However, the thing that made Hanzo-sensei particularly challenging today was that he chose to use ki techniques in addition to the bone-crunching speed and acrobatic techniques Andy was used to.

"Not f-" He had been about to say 'not fair' but caught himself before he did. The boy knew by now that his master would only scold him for a complaint like that. The old ninja would probably say something like, 'In a real fight your opponent won't care about fighting fair,' or, 'Learn to out wit a more skilled opponent and you'll be better for it.' Or something like that.

The boy did his best to dodge or block the missiles of spirit energy that were aimed at him; he became quite adept at jumping over the attacks. But his timing was off, by the time he landed and attempted to lash out with a well placed punch or kick Hanzo had already anticipated his move and blocked it so that Andy's attacks did minimal damage if any at all. Needless to say it was frustrating as all heck!

Finally, Saichi announced that lunch was ready and Andy happily redirected his energy from sparring with his master to beating the mad rush that was the afternoon meal.

It was during this meal that Koinosuke returned from the Course. He swaggered in like a champion to spite the fact that he was one of the last few to return and, after taking his helping of food, sat down right next to Mai.

"Ohisachiburi desu ne, cousin." He said.

"It's been a year, that's not that long." Mai didn't bother looking at him when she answered.

Andy didn't know why, but the sight of the two of them sitting together bothered him. Perhaps he had gotten used to her eating lunch with him alone at school and that sense of routine was carrying over to his training outside of school, or perhaps it was something entirely. Whatever the cause, Andy found himself sitting on Mai's other side. "Y'all don't mind if I sit here, do ya?"

"Not at all." Mai scooted over to better accommodate him.

While at the exact same time Koinosuke said, "Yeah, we do mind."

Andy chose to ignore him. Mai had said it was okay and, out of the two of them, hers was the opinion that mattered (though he didn't know why it mattered). He ate his rice silently, his mere presence being enough to make Koinosuke bristle.

"Cousin, would you rather eat on the dock?" He asked, turning his attention from the offensive form of Andy and instead focusing his attention on Mai. "We can watch the birds dive for their pray as we dip our feet in the water." This was a thirteen-year-old boy's idea of romance.

"That sounds fun." Mai agreed, she then turned to unwanted third wheel. "Andy, you wanna come with us?"

Before the blond interloper could answer Koinosuke cut in, "No, I mean just you and me."

"Oh, well that's no fun." Mai pouted in that way that Andy was beginning to find so very attractive and judging by the expression on Koinosuke's face it had a similar effect on him and Andy, for reason's unknown, found that knowledge to be very upsetting.

This effect Mai was having on him more and more was disconcerting. She was beginning to become quite the distraction for him. If this continued he'd never reach the level of aptitude he needed to be at in order to avenge his father. He needed to remove himself from Mai and remove Mai from himself.

"Go ahead you two." He said waving them off as if he didn't care.

"See, cousin, the hakujin doesn't want to come." Koinosuke stood and offered Mai his hand to aid her to her feet.

Mai gave a pleading look back at Andy but he turned away from her, pretending not to care. She was left with no other option but to give in and so, waving Koinosuke's offered hand and standing on her own, followed him out to the beach and from the beach to the dock.

…

Andy chose to meditate in the room he shared with Kazutaka, out of the hot sun, unbearable humidity and most importantly away from Mai. Hanzo-sensei said that meditation was key to unlocking his ki and learning the ki techniques of the Koppoujistu and Shiranui-ryu, he intended to be a master at meditation for when Hanzo began his official ki training.

…

Mai was practicing her forms on the beach as some light after-lunch exercise, Koinosuke chose to do the same next to her and she found his presence to be an insufferable annoyance.

"You got really pretty over the last year." He said, presumably as an attempt at flirtation.

Mai ignored him.

"I, uh… I'm sorry we weren't able to go to that dance together. But its good to see that you got over your illness."

"It was just the flu." She said without looking at him.

"Ah, right." The Shiranui prince seemed to lapse into silence, not knowing what to say. He watched Mai go through the motions of the Shiranui-ryu like they were an intricate dance. She mixed grace with speed and power in such a way that made her seem almost like a goddess of battle. It was silly to think, of course, but she was just that lovely.

"I, uh…"

"Koi, are you going to pester me all day or are you actually going to train at all?" She suddenly turned to him very cross.

He unconsciously took a step away from her, the flash in her eyes was beautiful but deadly looking and he feared what she might do to him if he angered her to much. "I, I'm sorry. I'll leave you." He bowed politely but before he would leave he had to tell her, "Still I'm happy."

"Why?" Mai raised one suspicious eyebrow.

"You called me 'Koi'." He left.

"Idiot." She muttered to his retreating back. "That's your name." She didn't bother to think that while Koinosuke's name was spelled with a different kanji and had a different meaning, the word 'koi' meant love or affection.

…

Dinner was the same standard affair and followed the same standard script; neither Andy nor Mai even bothered paying attention anymore. They had long since memorized their lines and cues, the rest of the dinner conversation was irrelevant lest some decide tonight was a good night for improve.

Koinosuke, it seemed, did think it was a good night for improve. He sat next to Mai and had been making constant attempts to engage her in conversation since they had sat down. While Andy sat on the opposite side on her grandfather from them he was still able to hear Koi's pathetic attempts, as he was sure everyone else did to.

Poor Koinosuke was getting ignored or brushed off at every turn. "I noticed you're wearing the same earrings today that you were yesterday." He ventured in yet another desperate attempt to get her attention.

Andy paused in his eating just long enough to see what Mai's response would be. If she would brush him off again or else continue to ignore him. Had he been paying attention, the boy would have also noticed that his master's eyes narrowed a quantum of a measurement at their mention as well. He was also interested in his granddaughter's answer.

"A good friend of mine gave them to me." She said, reaching a hand up and rubbing her thumb over the plastic jewel. More of their red coloring flaked off as she did so. "They were a birthday present."

"They look cheap." Koinosuke commented. "When we get back to Niigata I'll buy you a better pair. Your friend will never know the difference."

'Oh, yes he would!' Andy thought vehemently. Then he paused again and wondered why he even cared. The earrings were meant to be an apology for him injuring her in a spar, what she did with them after that was her concern. Koinosuke was her fiancé and he had the right to buy her as many trinkets as he wanted. By all right's Andy shouldn't care.

…And yet he did…

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.' The boy reminded himself. He was just setting himself up for more pain and heartache if he followed down this road.

…

The next day Hanzo and Nagare decided, in one of their rare moments of agreement, to hold tournament-style sparring matched between the Shiranui disciples. Students were paired off and the one who came out best of the spars could advance to the next level and so on and so forth until there was only one victor.

Andy assumed that Nagare had been the one to originally suggest this. He probably thought it would be a way for his grandson to showoff to the rest of the clan. As for Hanzo agreeing to it… Andy assumed that his master expected him to be the final victor and prove the superiority of his training methods over Nagare's. Sibling rivalry was a wicked thing.

Andy first faced off against a Shiranui disciple tat was one year his junior. The kid was good but it became easily apparent that Andy was the superior fighter, but then again, that's what happens when you spend almost every waking hour training and have no social life to speak of.

He next faced off against Koinosuke.

The smug little prat smirked at him from across the ring, it was probably because he thought that he was superior to an orphaned hakujin with no standing or connections. Because everyone knows how important lineage, standing and connections are to fighting prowess (/sarcasm).

Andy didn't know why but when he saw that smug little smirk on his obnoxious and aristocratic face all he could think of was Mai. That Mai was doomed to live with this prideful princely prat as a partner made him angry and he couldn't figure out why. All he did know was that he wanted to pound that smug smirk right off the princely prat's face.

Nagare called the start of the match with an abrupt "Begin!"

"Zan-ei Ken!" Andy rushed forward with his elbow aimed at his foe. Koinosuke tried to dodge but was to slow and the attack caught him in the shoulder sending him staggering backwards off balance.

"K-kuso." The princely prat muttered.

Andy didn't give him time to recover. While he was still off balance the blond ninja grabbed him and threw him in the style of a Kakaekomi Nage. Koinosuke bounced a couple of times before regaining his footing.

The clan's prince knew he was falling behind in the fight, Bogard was too good when it came to close quarters combat, he needed to keep him away at a distance if he was going to come back victorious. Koi silently kicked himself for underestimation him just because he was a foreigner. He withdrew two concealed kunai and threw than at his foe in quick secession.

Andy saw the projectiles coming and managed to jump over one but was hit by the second on his way back down. The leaf shaped blade catching him in the thigh. He crumples to the ground in a heap. Koinosuke took the opportunity to launch an aerial attack on the fell foe. Andy pulled the kunai from his leg and rolled out of the impact zone just before the princely prat slammed the full weight of his body into him.

Andy crouched on the edge of the ring, one hand pressed against the dark red stain that was spreading over his white pants, the other balled into a fist. If only he'd started training on ki techniques he could attack Koinosuke from far away without having to worry about himself. Andy didn't have much time to lament his lack of training; Koinosuke recovered quickly and rushed the blond fighter.

Andy grabbed his attacker's arm and, using Koinosuke's own momentum to propel him, swung the princely prat over himself and to the ground behind him. Andy then regained his footing and winced at the stab of pain that lanced through his leg when he weight on it. He was off balance because of his injury, he knew it and he was sure Koinosuke would know it too. If only the bastard had had to courtesy to fall out of the ring when Andy flung him. He lay so close to the edge, almost mockingly so.

Koinosuke climbed to his feet and glared at Andy, the blond glared back at him. They stood there motionless for a few moments. Koinosuke probably seething over the fact that Hanzo's hakujin pet-project was giving him a challenge, Andy seeing the form of Mai's unhappiness. He had no idea why or how the idea of Mai's sadness and melancholy made him feel thus but it did and Koinosuke was the cause of that.

He tried jumping, taking to the air in an attempt to launch an attack that would not require firm footing on his part. Andy snarled when the action elicited a fresh wave of pain from his injury but tried to ignore it. He aimed a kick at the princely prat. "Uwa Agito!"

The kick caught Koi in the chest and he went flying backwards the rest of the way out of the ring. The clan members that had gathered to watch their prince fight inhaled a collective gasp of shock and dismay. All was silent aside from the snarl of pain that escaped Andy's lips as he came back down to land after his final kick. The hakujin had won, their prince had lost to Hanzo's pet project.

"Well…" Nagare said softly, glaring with all the venom and loathing in the world at Andy. "That was unexpected."

"Ugh…" Koinosuke rolled over onto his hands and knees in a slow and labored attempt to get to his feet.

"Get up." Nagare snapped at him. "Show some dignity, boy."

"Hai, Ojisama." The boy stood while clutching a hand to is chest where Andy had kicked him.

Hanzo came up to Andy in the ring and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Well done, puppy. Go have Doc take a look at that leg before Naga and Koinosuke grab him and monopolize his time."

"Hai, sensei." Andy hobbled off the field to find Doc or else find fine someone who knew where he was.

…

"I told you, Ani-ue, I told the when you first brought that monster to the island!" Nagare was saying later. Hanzo sat impassively while his younger brother roared and raved. "You've let a wolf into your house, Ani-ue. A monstrous little wolf."

Hanzo waited to be sure his brother had finished before saying. "It seems to me, Naga, the only reason you're so upset is because my 'monstrous wolf' as you call him, bested your grandson in combat. You're just pissy because you were embarrassed in front of the rest of the clan. "

Nagare scoffed and averted his eyes.

"Ah, Naga, you never did take disappointment well." Hanzo placed a comforting hand on his younger brother's shoulder. Though they almost never agreed on anything anymore and Nagare could be a real pain in Hanzo's side, they were still brothers and he was not so unkind as to not offer comfort when it was needed. "But look at it this way. Your grandson my have lost the match but he's managed to injure Andy in such a way as to keep him off his feet for the rest of the summer."

The information was of little comfort to Nagare but it did comfort him none the less. "And what will you do now, Ani-ue? Since your disciple is laid-up with a lame leg?"

"Oh, this and that." Hanzo answered evasively.

"T'ch, you'll still be training him in some way even as he lay in bed ill." Nagare scoffed. "What are you trying to accomplish with this boy, Ani-ue? Why do you train him so hard? It can't really just be because an old friend asked you to."

"My reason's are my own, little brother. Leave it at that. But I can assure you, its nothing so devious as what you might be imagining."

…

Andy and Kazutaka were playing a game of Hazard when Hanzo reentered.

"Oh, hello Chichi-ue." Kazu piped when the old ninja entered. "Andy-chan and I have been bonding over our gimpieness."

"Kazutaka-sama." Andy said dejectedly.

Hanzo ignored their comments. He focused his attention on Andy. "How's the leg, puppy?"

"It hurts but I'll be fine." He answered dutifully. "Doc sewed it up and told me to stay off it for a few days but I'll still be able to fight. I'll still be able to avenge my father. He also made a few jokes about Hamlet that I didn't quite get and then argued with Kazutaka-sama for another half hour before Saichi made him leave."

"I can't help it if the ass has no good taste in literature." Kazu shrugged.

Hanzo continued to ignore his prattle. "Tomorrow we'll begin your ki training." He said to Andy. "In the mean time get some rest. I'll have Saichi send up something for you to eat."

"Thank you, sensei." The boy nodded. "But… but how can you train me when I cannot stand?"

"Tomarrow, puppy." Hanzo assured him. "Kazu, come with me."

Kazutaka obediently stood and followed his father out. The descended the stairs and crossed the nightingale floor eliciting a choir of chirps and squeaks. Hanzo lead them out into the garden where dusk was slowly falling over the landscape.

"What's up, Chichi-ue?" Kazu asked once they were outside.

"Answer me honestly, Kazu, did you think Andy would beat Koinosuke?"

"Did I think he would, or did I know he could?" The younger man clarified. The subtleties of word choice were not lost on him. "We've both always known he could beat Koinosuke-chan. What you want to know is what I think of him not showing any mercy to the second in line to be head of the family."

Hanzo crossed his arms over his chest as if to say "Well?"

"I think he likes to win and he'll do what he has to do in order to come out on top." Kazu answered slowly. "He's a nice kid out of the ring but once the fight starts he's cold as ice, its only him, his goal and the opponent that's keeping him from it."

Hanzo nodded as if Kazutaka had just confirmed his own opinions.

"It's a shame really." Kazu continued unbidden.

"What is?"

"He fits in perfectly with this family, or rather he would fit in perfectly with this family if only he had been born into it." Kazutaka held his father's gaze when he said, "If Andy had been born a Shiranui ninja it would be he that everyone would support as the next heir and not Koinosuke."

"And this is your opinion?"

"Our family values three things above all else, Chichi-ue." Kazu replied in all seriousness. "Strength, ability and lineage. And has the strength and ability, it's only the lineage he lacks."

Hanzo listened to all his son had to say in quiet contemplation. For the most part he was right. Andy had both the strength of body and of character to be not just a great ninja but also a capable leader, he had the ability to learn what skills he needed or might need, if only he'd been bore a ninja, either a Shiranui or one of the other well respected clans. Hell, if only he'd been born Japanese at the least!

"But the lineage is the thing our clan cares about most." Hanzo muttered sadly. "It why they don't want Mai to inherit by herself, its why she must marry Koinosuke."

Kazutaka bit the inside of his cheek but said nothing.

"If only Andy were Japanese…" Hanzo muttered.


	16. The Ghost from Hamlet

Andy sat upright on his futon, one leg drawn in as if in lotus position the other outstretched so as not to put unnecessary strain on the stitches that held the wound on his thigh closed. It was not the optimum position for meditation but it was functional and that was what mattered.

Andy descended down into the core of his being as his master had instructed him to. There, just above his naval he felt an odd light or did he see a soft warmth? Neither made sense, you couldn't feel light or see warmth, but then again your bodies physical senses didn't really matter in so deep a trance, it was only how your mind interpreted such senses.

"That is your ki…" His master's voice sounded soft and faint as if the aged warrior were speaking to him across a great distance.

Andy circled the mysterious power curiously. It was both warm and cool, pliant yet strong, ephemeral but still fixed. His mind could not understand it, it was other, strange.

"Take it," Hanzo's voice was saying, "take just a small piece of it and come back, bring it out with you."

Andy did as he was told, reaching out with his self he took a piece of this strange power that slept within him and began to ascended back to full consciousness. When he once again opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was his master's face smirking in triumph. Wondered, only for a moment why the old ninja looked so smug before he saw the light he now held between his two outstretched hands.

A soft blueish-white light that looked so solid yet felt as immaterial as air. This, this was his ki. Andy stared transfixed by the light in his hands as if hypnotized. It seemed otherworldly and yet so real at the same time.

"Well done, puppy." Hanzo's voice pulled him out of his mesmerized state. "You can put it away now. Tomorrow we'll work on drawing it out faster."

The old master stood to leave.

"'Put it away'?" Andy looked up in confusion. "But how am I supposed…?"

"The same way you drew it out, of course." Hanzo replied as if this should have been obvious. He exited leaving Andy sitting on his futon holding a glowing ball of pure energy in utter confusion.

…

Koinosuke had taken to leaving his shirt off while outside. He said it was to ward off the unbearable humidity of the Japanese summer but Mai wasn't fooled. He was showing off the large black and purple bruise he'd gotten in his spar with Andy. He probably thought he was a big, tough man with a wound like that. Hah!

Andy was a real man! He might be a few months younger than Koinosuke was but he was far more mature. Andy had a concept of the real world, how the world really worked. Koinosuke had been spoiled and pampered all his life… just like she had… Andy had called Mai a "pampered princess" once and maybe that was true. She was practically a princess in all but an actual royal sense. But if she was a pampered princess then Koinosuke was a spoiled pompous princeling.

He went through the monitions of his ninjitsu forms with a strained expression on his face, as if every movement was agonizing to complete. But Mai saw right through it. His face my have said he was in pain but the actual movements themselves were fluid and unburdened, he was fine. Koinosuke always had loved to play-up his injuries, it seemed that this one was no different. Mai was not impressed.

She wondered idly if she should confront him about it directly. If she should walk up to him and flat out say, "Look, you're not fooling anyone and you're just making yourself out to be an idiot, so cut the crap and act normal." But he would probably just fain ignorance. And so she didn't.

A small explosion startled everyone on the beach and they all turned to find that a sizable chunk of wall that been blown clear from the villa's second floor. No sooner had anyone realized this than there was a rain of debris from the explosion and everyone clamored to get out of the fallout zone with many an exclamation of, "Mother Trucker!" and "Son of a Itch!" and questions of "What the Hell just happened?"

Mai pelted whatever debris came her way to the side with her fan as she pushed passed the other members of the Shiranui clan to get back to the villa. Andy had been inside when it had happened, on the second floor in fact, laid-up with his injured leg. She hoped he wasn't in the room when it blew.

Her grandfather was already there when she arrived, standing in the doorway to the chrysanthemum room, his back to the hall. The aged ninja glared down at his apprentice. Mai squeezed around her grandfather just enough to see Andy, sitting on his bed surrounded by debris and charred bits of everything with not a scratch on him. He looked sheepishly up at his master and said:

"It slipped."

…

"'It slipped'!? 'It slipped'! That's all he had to say for himself?" Nagare was livid (as were several other members of the Shiranui clan) upon hearing that Andy, Hanzo's hakujin pet-project, was the cause of the explosion.

The boy had lost control of his ki and the energy ball had drifted into contact with the outer wall of the room and blasted outwards onto the beach. No one had be grievously injured (thank goodness) but the damage to the property was enough to cost the family a tidy sum.

Hanzo sat impassively, his arms crossed over his chest wile his brother paced around the room. All the elder members of the clan had gathered to discuss the "problem" of the young hakujin disciple and Hanzo knew that whatever was decided here would not be in his favor. He had brought Andy into their house and so the boy was his responsibility.

Still, if any other disciple of the Shiranui-ryu had caused an incident like earlier today they wouldn't be having a meeting like this. The difference was that Andy was not a son of the Shiranui clan, he was an outsider, he wasn't one of them.

"He's just a boy." Hanzo said in his apprentice's defense knowing that would have no sway whatsoever. True, he was still just a child, but he was a child on the cusp of becoming a man and as such more was expected of him and he would be judged harshly regardless of what the old ninja said in his defense. Nagare had wanted to be rid of the boy since he'd first arrived in the Shiranui clan and now it seemed Andy had given him exactly what he wanted: an excuse to kick him out.

"Age means nothing to a ninja." One of the clan's elders said. "He should be able to control his abilities."

"That is my fault as a teacher and should not be reflected on Andy!" Hanzo shot back.

Nagare patted his brother on the shoulder, coming from anyone else the gesture might have been comforting, but coming from Naga it was somehow mocking. "I told you, Ani-ue, you're brought a wolf into our house and when you reach out to a wolf, he's liable to bite your hand."

Hanzo shrugged the unwelcome hand from his shoulder. "Your metaphors are neither helpful nor welcome, Naga."

"Still, he is right." Another of those gathered said. "You were unwise to welcome such undesirable a creature into our clan and now we all must pay for it."

"So 'undesirable a creature'? He's a child, not an animal!"

"He's American." Nagare shrugged.

And there it was, right there. 'He's American.' There was the root from which all the clan's problems with Andy stemmed, he was an American. Many of the older members of the clan had lived through the Second World War and bore a certain prejudice against America and its people.

Hanzo balled his hands into fists at his sides; this was one battle he would not win. "If it is the clan's wish I will send the boy elsewhere."

Everyone in the room seemed to relax at that admission.

…

The rest of the summer had passed quickly enough and before anyone knew it they were back at the Mino residence. Hanzo had arranged for Andy to live with his friend Yamada Jubei. At the Yamada dojo he could continue his kappoujitsu and ninjitsu training and be ready to face his father's killer but still be away from the rest of the Shiranui clan. It was an acceptable compromise.

Now was the best time for him to move anyway as it was still summer vacation between school years. It was the best time for him to transfer schools as well as homes, much better than transferring in the middle of the year.

Andy plunked his bag down in the Yamada dojo's entryway so as to have an extra hand to pull his shoes off with. Once again he had been sent away from a home because he was a 'problem child'. It seemed even away from America and out of the foster system he was still being passed around like an unwanted fruitcake at a Christmas dinner.

Andy placed his shoes in an empty cubby whole of a shoe rack that had been placed against the well in the entryway.

"Want me to take this to your room for you?" Jubei asked, lifting the boy's duffle bag.

"That's not necessary, Sensei." Andy shook his head. "I carried it all the way here, I can carry it to the room I'll be sleeping in."

Jubei was no psychologist but he paused briefly at the boy's choice of words, 'the room I'll be sleeping in' as opposed to, 'my room'. The old man shrugged, psychology wasn't his strong suit and he didn't have much experience with children. He chose not to make anything of it. "Well, if you're sure."

Andy padded down the short hallway that ran down the middle of the house. The doors to the room that he assumed would be 'his room' was left open, both the one opening into the hall as well as the one that lead outside to the yard. He assumed it was to let the room air out. The whole house had a tendency to smell like 'old man'. A futon and bedding was folded and set against a sidewall, presumably so Andy could arrange it to his taste. A small closet also stood open and empty, waiting for him to deposit his meager wardrobe.

Andy let his duffle bag drop to the floor as he flopped down on the neatly folded bedding, effectively rumpling and wrinkling it and degrading it in to a pile of general disarray. He missed his father. That crappy small apartment he had shared with Jeff, Terry and Tung was the only home he'd never been kicked out of, it was the only home he had ever called 'home'. Before that it had always been '(Name of foster parents') house'. But with Jeff it had been home.

It was the one home he was never reluctant to go back to after school. It was the one home he never felt unwanted or burdensome. It was the one home where he'd been able to live with Terry. No other foster home had been willing to take the both of them together but Jeff had not just taken them into his house, he had adopted them as his own. Given them not just a home but a name as well.

He missed his home.

Andy wondered where Terry was and how he was progressing with his training. It had been years since he'd seen his brother. He wondered if he was having the same problems with girls or school or acne or if he was still wearing that same stupid hat… Andy laid down in the pile of soft bedding while thinking of his brother and adopted father and promptly fell asleep.

…

"Wake up, sleepy head…"

"Huh…?" Andy slowly opened his eyes at the sound of the gentle voice that had roused him from his slumber. He gazed up into the warm and reassuring brown eyes of Jeff Bogard. "Dad?"

"No, the ghost from Hamlet." His father teased. "C'mon, just because it's Saturday, just because you and your brother don't have school is no reason to laze about."

Andy sat bolt upright. This wasn't right, Jeff was dead! He was living in Japan, training to avenge his death. Wasn't he…? No, it couldn't have been, that was just a dream. A sad weird dream… He rolled out of bed and pulled out a clean pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt from his dresser while Jeff turned to the second bed in the room and attempted to rouse its occupant.

"Five more minuets…" Terry muttered and rolled over, pulling the blankets over his head to better muffle the sounds of his father's nagging and brother getting ready for the day.

"I will get a bucket of cold water." Jeff threatened.

Terry made no response, only continued to lay in bet in a vain attempt to reclaim the sleep from which he had been so rudely pulled. Jeff threw up his arms in defeat and exited the room. Andy stood by the side of his brother's bed after he had finished dressing; he contemplated whether or not it might be a good idea to attempt to wake Terry as well but decided against it. The elder Bogard brother was not a morning person was cranky and snappy and just all around unpleasant to be around when woken up to early.

Andy exited the bedroom he shared with Terry into the living room back-slash dinning room back-slash kitchen of their small apartment and was greeted by the pleasant scent of frying bacon, hash browns and eggs. Master Tung sat at the kitchen's foldout table reading the South Town Times. He peered out the side of his paper when Andy entered and pulled out the crossword and sudoku. He set the page down at the boy's normal seat at the table; it was part of their morning routine.

Wait. Was it part of their routine? Andy couldn't remember ever doing the crossword and sudoku before. Was his normal morning routine to go jogging or do some calisthenics before breakfast? The boy mentally shrugged and decided that he must still be half asleep and sat at the table, taking the offered mind-puzzles.

He was halfway through the Across section of the crossword when Jeff placed a plate of warm eggs, bacon and potatoes in front of him. It was at that moment that Terry chose to grace them with his presence, swaggering out of the bedroom still in his PJs and wearing that annoying red and white cap that he always wore. Andy sometimes thought it was a wonder that he didn't take it into the shower with him.

"Mornin' all." He yawned.

"Ah, sleeping beauty wakes!" Jested Jeff as he offered Terry a plate of food.

The family ate in contented silence and Andy was happy that this was his reality and not that awful dream…

After breakfast Jeff took the boys to the park. He sat on the grass under the shade of a tree to watch his sons play.

Terry was busy pestering Andy to play a one-on-one game of basketball with him but the younger boy refused. Basketball was Terry's thing not his, his hobby was… what was his hobby? Training? But why? What reason did he have to train everyday if his dad hadn't really been killed by Geese? There seemed to be gaping holes in his memory. What had he been doing these past few years with his family that he didn't remember?

Andy knew he wasn't going to figure anything out with his brother nagging him to play a stupid game. He gave Terry the bush-off and walked over to sit with Jeff in the shade of his tree.

"You don't wanna play with your brother?" His father asked.

"I…" Andy faltered. How would he explain a severe amnesia like this to his dad? "I didn't want to be out in the sun. You know how I burn easily."

Jeff nodded and Andy supposed that this must be a common occurrence on outings such as this, he couldn't remember. Jeff reached into a picnic basket that Andy didn't think they had brought with them and pulled out a small stack of sandwiches. He offered one to Andy.

"Since you're not gonna play with your brother, how 'bout some lunch."

Andy obediently took the offered food. It was bland and tasteless in his mouth but he took a few more bites before setting it to the side so as not to insult his father's culinary skills.

"Is something bothering you?" Jeff asked after a prolonged pause.

"No." Andy answered slowly. "Not really. It's just that… I think I'm a little confused is all. Never mind."

Jeff seemed to accept his answer and didn't push the issue. He turned his attention back to watching Terry. He had found someone else to play with. Andy and Jeff watched them play half-court from the shade of their tree. A slight breeze rustled the leaves of their tree and tousled Andy's long hair about his face. The boy pulled a strand of his flyaway golden hair from his eyes and saw the Jeff was unaffected by the breeze.

"Its nice, isn't it?" His father said without looking at him. "The wind on your face. It feels good, doesn't it?"

"Can't you feel it?" Andy asked in confusion.

Instead of answering Jeff turned to face his younger son and smiled a sad and forlorn looking smile.

At that moment the wind stopped, the sound's of the park seemed to fade-out as if Andy were suddenly going deaf, his vision focused completely on Jeff as if he were seeing him through a tunnel.

"You can't feel it..." The boy said slowly. "Because you're not really here."

Jeff nodded.

"Because you're dead."

Another nod.

At that moment there was a whoosh and everything disappeared. Terry vanished as did the muted colors and sounds of the park, the tree under which the sat, everything but Jeff. The two of them stood in an empty void. Jeff turned to leave.

"Wait!" Andy called.

The specter of his father paused.

"I'll avenge you!" The boy promised. "Me and Terry, we're working really hard so that we can get the guy who killed you!"

The ghost of his father nodded. "I know."

And then he was gone and Andy was left standing in the void, alone.

...

Andy awoke laying on the wrinkled mass of bedding that had been provided for him by Jubei. He had been laying in an odd position and his back and neck hurt in places. The boy stood and stretched a bit before arranging the bedding properly.

It was early evening by this time and a light summer breeze drifted in from the outside through wide open door. It tousled Andy's long hair about his face and reminded him of the dream he'd just been having. The boy brushed his hair out of his face and shut the door. He didn't want the reminded of his father's absence.

He cast a sideways glance at his duffle bag, wondering if he should put his things away or not. His stomach gave a gurgling grumble and he decided to put that off until after dinner.

He entered Jubei's kitchen, a metaphoric rain-cloud of melancholy over his head. If the old Judo master noticed this or not he made no comment. If Andy was depressed it was best to let him get over it in his own way. Coping was part of growing up.


	17. Ever Hear Of...?

As it turned out, living at the Yamada dojo wasn't all that bad. Yamada Jubei was an eccentric old coot but he was an entertaining eccentric old coot and his virtues seemed to be in blatant opposition of his vices. For example, Jubei was obsessively clean when it came to things such as germs, dirt, dust, etr. However, he had no problem with clutter and disarray. He would make Andy scrub, shine and polish the dojo floor so that it was clean enough to eat off of yet he had no issue with leaving his erotic magazines laying all over the place.

Another oddity of life at the Yamada dojo was that, aside from a handful of electric lights thrown here and there in the house, there wasn't a single bit of useful modern technology. It was like stepping back into the early Meiji era when entering dojo property. The kitchen used both wood-burning stove and oven, and the house did not seem to have indoor plumbing. There was a water pump just outside the kitchen door or you could walk six kilometers up into the mountains and carry buckets of fresh river water back down with you.

Also, there was no indoor shower or bathroom. If a person wanted to bath they had to fill the tub in the property's small bathhouse and heat the water yourself before hopping in. Likewise, if you needed to use a toilet, no indoor bathroom for you, nope, instead there was a privy a bit of a ways away from the main house just on the edge of the tree line.

Life at the Yamada dojo was nowhere near as comfortable as it had been at the Shiranui main house, but Andy had lived in worse places and he had to admit, with all its little quirks and eccentricities the Yamada dojo was kinda fun.

Jubei-sensei picked up Andy's training where Hanzo had left off: with ki techniques. Jubei was no kappou-jitsu master, he wasn't even a ninja really, but he had fought with Hanzo (both alongside and against) enough times to be able to explain the technique to one as bright as Andy. They kept up with Hanzo's usual regimen of light exercise in the mornings followed by a light breakfast (usually cooked by Andy himself) then they got down to the real training.

Jubei spent a good deal of time and great amount of effort helping Andy to get a better handle on his ki. No self-respecting ninja would allow themselves to go into battle without being able to fully control their own fighting spirit. The old judo master spent long hours with the boy working on his meditations and teaching him better control.

Jubei was no psychologist but he had a feeling that the boys problem with controlling his ki stemmed from his emotional issues developed over his time spent living as a street urchin and the death of his father. The old judo master was sure that living in the Shiranui clan hadn't exactly helped either. Hanzo and his son and granddaughter were alright, but the rest of the extended family were… less accepting, shall we say.

In the afternoons they would work on the more physical aspects of martial arts, the forms and motions of the kappoujitsu and Shiranui-ryu fighting styles. The two of them would spar off and on, pausing every now and again for Jubei to correct him on a move or a stance. Andy found that being taught by one who was not an actual practitioner of his style was both confusing and yet enlightening. Jubei didn't explain things like Hanzo had, in terms of 'why we do this this way', but rather from the point of view of an opponent with a different style, 'if you do something like that then I can easily do this and hand your ass back to you'.

Hanzo and Andy had been practicing the same style and so it had been easier for the boy to anticipate his master's moves and react accordingly. Jubei's style was very different and so often threw Andy off. It was infuriating to have to fight against, but at the same time he knew that when he fought Geese he would not be up against a familiar style but something he'd only ever seen once before and not through the eyes of another fighter but those of a scared child watching his parent die. As infuriating as it was, Andy knew he would be better for it and so viewed his spars with Jubei with a mixture of both apprehension and appreciation.

School didn't seem all that bad anymore either. It seemed all Andy really needed to really flourish was a change of scenery. Years past, he studied and trained under Jubei's guidance, attended school and before he knew it hew was sixteen (the age of majority in Japan) and could legally withdraw from school to focus all his time and attention on his martial arts completely.

…

On Andy's sixteenth birthday Jubei took him out for his first drink of alcohol. And to this day Andy still can't remember what happened that night.

…

It was the day after Andy's sixteenth birthday party, as the boy was still nursing his first ever hangover than Jubei-sensei burst into his room and announced that they were going to Tokyo to participate in the underground fight circles there. Jubei rambled off some long explanation about not wanting to take Andy there when he was still a minor or something like that. But the boy was still to addle-brained from last night's boozing to fully comprehend. All he knew was that his master was packing a small travel bag for him and dragging him out the dojo to the nearest train station.

While on the train Andy received a splitting headache from a girl in a sailor suit school uniform shrieking in horror and hitting Jubei-sensei over the head with her school bag. Andy just messaged his temples and asked his master to kindly behave himself, not that he was really in any sort of condition to enforce this.

…

Ultimate Fighters is bare-fisted boxing. Competitors wear a little bit of padding to protect against most fatal injuries but overall are relatively unprotected. UF is televised and can usually be found on cable. It is perfectly legal, regulated and as safe as any blood sport can be.

What Jubei took Andy too was not Ultimate Fighters. It was a bare-fisted fighting ring but that was where the similarities stopped. Fighters did not wear any from of protective padding of any sort, it was not televised, there were no regulations and it most certainly was not legal.

The entry fee was ninety thousand yen (roughly one thousand America dollars). Andy had no idea where his master could have gotten that kind of money, but after seeing the iniquity in which he stood the teen decided that he probably didn't want to know.

As this was all an underground operation and everyone present wanted to stay off the radar. No one named any names or stared to long at faces and everyone called everyone else by a codename of sorts. Jubei was "the Demon" or sometimes just "Demon", the man adding Andy to the line-up was "Mr. Six" and had two beautiful yet scantily clad women flanking him whom he referred to as Kitten and Kitty (though Andy couldn't tell which was which).

"And what name shall we call the boy?" Asked Mr. Six. "He looks like he'd make a good 'Elf' with that hair."

One of the women at his side giggled. Andy decided to designate that one as Kitten. He wondered if he was expected to supply his own name or if they were going to give him one. He really didn't want to be called "Elf" like some supporting character in a Tolken novel. He wanted something tougher and more masculine, something that reflected all the years of training and hard work he'd put into his fighting. "How about the Human Weapon?" He suggested.

Mr. Six gave a laugh. "Maybe when you're older kid. You gotta earn titles like that around here. Take the Demon here for example," he jabbed a finger at Jubei-sensei, "when he first started comin' here he was 'Grabby Hands'. He didn't like that one much either, but he kept comin' back and by his third night everyone was callin' him the Demon instead."

"How about 'White Wolf'?" Jubei suggested. "I promise you, the kid's got chops."

Mr. Six sat back in his chair. "Well, I suppose that's relatively un-intimidating. Alright kiddo, White Wolf it is." He wrote down Andy's name in his ledger and scribbled some figures and odds next to his name. "Long as you're here, Demon," he addressed Jubei, "wanna place a bet? Or did you blow all your money on entering your little wolf cub?"

Jubei thought about it for a moment, he glanced at Andy then at the odds Mr. Six had written in his ledger. "Ya know, I think I will." He withdrew a ten thousand yen bill from the folds of his haori and laid it down on the ledger. "On White Wolf and let it writhe."

"You always were bad at this." Mr. Six smiled.

The old Judo master just shrugged. "We'll see."

As they were walking away Andy muttered. "I'm not really much like a wolf. Terry's more wolf-ish than I am."

Jubei just gave a shrug.

…

The "ring" was actually a cage, Andy soon found out. As such it would be impossible to win with a ring-out (or survive by a ring-out). It smelled of sweat and blood and the floor of the cage looked red and flaky but it was impossible to tell if it was from dried blood or rust. The teen was glad that his tetanus shot was up-to-date.

He entered the ring, a tad hesitant, this was not a set-up he was used to. A ninja should fear nothing and yet Andy found himself apprehensive. The kid gloves were off now, it was do or die. He had seen the odds Mr. Six had scribbled by his name; he was a 1 to 12 underdog. But then again, the Shiranui clan hadn't though much of him either and he had showed them, he could handle a little cage fight.

His opponent was about a head taller than him with broader shoulders and a wider chest. He entered the ring barefoot and shirtless. The man glared down at Andy in an attempt to unbalance him mentally but the blond fighter just stared impassively back. He was perfectly aware of the psychological tactic and was not impressed.

The announcer stepped between them and addressed the crowd. "We've got some new blood for you this evening! In this corner –" the ring didn't have corners, it was a circular cage "- a young buck out to prove himself, White Wolf!"

The crow booed loudly and threw various concession items at him.

"And in this corner, a man who needs no introduction. You know 'im, you love 'im, you've most likely bet on 'im… Iron Clad!"

The crow cheered and hollered and a number of the women of the spectators threw various undergarment type things at him (the cage, however, prevented any of them from actually landing anywhere near Iron Clad. The man turned around a few times, drinking in the attention before once again facing Andy.

"Ready…?" The announcer began, while backing to the cage's only exit. "Kill!"

The announcer dashed out of the cage just as Iron Clad charged at Andy, probably intending to pin him to the cage wall but the blond ninja jumped over him leap-frog style and so Iron Clad's own head collided with the solid bars and chain link fencing that made up the cage. The crowd booed.

Andy spun around to watch Iron Clad push himself free from the barrier and shake his head, most likely in an attempt to clear it. He turned slowly and glared daggers at the little White Wolf from across the ring.

"You're a quick little bastard."

The boy didn't bother to respond. He knew this type, he hadn't seen much of it living with the Shiranui clan but back when he and Terry were living in South Town this type was sort of the standard. They kept talking, cracking jokes or throwing insults in an attempt to distract or confuse their opponent. A common low down trick used by common low down trash. This fight wouldn't be nearly as hard as Andy first thought.

Iron Clad waited, he wasn't going to risk another charge knowing how fast White Wolf was. He waited for the boy to come at him. Which Andy did. He sprang forward as if to strike his opponent in the stomach but ducked down at the last moment to kick the man's legs out from under him. Iron Clad clattered to the ground in a heap, humiliated by a kid for a second time.

Andy wondered momentarily if he should take advantage of the man's vulnerability or wait for him to get back to his feet. It wasn't very sporting to kick a man while he was down. But then he remembered where he was and what kind of people were watching and what they expected to see. But mostly, he knew that his opponent wouldn't be so sporting were their positions reversed.

Still crouched, Andy lashed out with three quick punches, his knuckles pointed and heard the bones in the man's shoulder, forearm and ribs break under the attacks. Iron Clad roared in pain and Andy yet again took advantage of his vulnerability and, standing now, landed a kick that sent the man spinning to finally lay on the cage floor, motionless.

The crowd stared in stunned silence.

The announcer reopened to cage door and reentered. Crouching down he checked the man's vitals, his breathing and heart beat, to make sure he was still alive before standing and addressing the stunned crowd.

"THE WINNER!" He roared, lifting Andy's arm into the air as he did so.

There were a few tentative claps but the only real enthusiasm came from Jubei-sensei whom Andy couldn't see from where he stood but none the less managed to hear his exclamation of "Twenty thousand yen!"

Andy was lead out of the ring to make room for the next fight. He met up with Jubei in the crowd.

"I'm so proud of you!" The old judo master trapped Andy in a headlock and tousled his hair.

"He was not a difficult opponent, Sensei." The boy responded. And he hadn't been. Mai was a tougher fighter than Iron Clad had been.

The two waded through the throng of standing spectators to a spot close to the cage to watch the next fight that appeared to already be half-over. Another heavily built fighter squared off against a Muay Thai kick-boxer that appeared to be around Andy's same age. And just like in Andy's fight the younger of the two appeared to have the upper hand.

Andy watched in fascination as the Muay Thai kick-boxer grabbed his opponent's head and managed to land a string of powerful kicks to the man's face. It must have been at the very least a ten hit combo, a very impressive display.

The man, who's face now looked like chili con carne, collapsed to the ground -unconscious.

The announcer once again reentered the cage and once again checked the loser's vitals before raising the Muay Thai user's arm to proclaim him the winner. This youth received considerably more cheers than Andy had, cheers that were complemented by chants of "Hurricane Upper! Hurricane Upper!" Which the blond ninja assumed was the kick-boxer's alias.

"He's gonna be your next opponent when this tier is finished." Jubei whispered into the young ninja's ear. "Do you think you can beat him?"

Andy thought about the kick-boxer's apparent speed and strength. He coupled that with the fact that the man was obviously more experienced than he was at this sort of thing, the crowd's acclaim for him was indication enough of that. He was young, as Andy was young, but that meant nothing when it came to skill or prowess. The Muay Thai boxer would be a challenge.

"Don't bet to much on me, Sensei." The boy finally responded.

…

Andy stepped into the ring moderately apprehensive about his opponent. Hurricane Upper was no older than he was but the Muay Thai boxer stood about an inch or two taller than Andy. His thick brown hair stood up strain on his head as if to mock gravity and he wore a smug expression on his face that Andy was sure was because he knew he was awesome instead of just thinking he was awesome.

The Announcer shouted their names to be heard over the tumult of cheers that all seemed to be for Upper and none for White Wolf. Andy was just a little disappointed; he would have thought that his victory over Iron Clad might have earned him just a little respect. But, he reflected, it was always more fun to boo the new guy than to cheer for him.

"Ready…" As he had in the previous fight, the Announcer edged closer to the exit before shouting "Kill!" and dashing out the door, hurriedly locking it behind him.

Andy focused his full attention on Hurricane Upper, from what he had observed of the man he was wicked fast and strong to boot. If he charged Andy as Iron Clad had done he might actually connect before the ninja could dodge and land some meaningful damage in the process. It seemed something similar was going through the Muay Thai boxer's mind as well because he also just studied Andy. Sizing him up.

Andy took an experimental step to his right and noted that Upper did the same, the two circled each other like that for one full revolution, always keeping the same distance between one another before Upper seemed to get impatient.

He slammed one fist into the palm of his hand and then pointed at Andy while saying, "Sakusaku ikuzei." (Let's finish this quickly.)

Andy didn't care one way or the other if this was over quickly or not. His purpose in coming here was to improve his skills by fighting in a no holds barred tournament against fighters whose styles were unfamiliar to him. His goal was improvement and advancement; time was immaterial at this junction.

"Hn." Was his reply to Hurricane Upper's impetuous remark and he ran a hand through his long-ish blond hair.

"Omae…" Upper muttered. Apparently, he didn't appreciate White Wolf's dismissal of his statement. "Take this!"

Hurricane Upper rushed forward, his knee out in a fast kick that Andy didn't quite manage to avoid. The blow grazed him across the side of his pelvic bone. Had the attack connected on target, Upper's knee would have gone right into the ninja's groin.

Andy spun around and dealt a backhanded smack to the side of Hurricane Upper's face, startling the kick-boxer enough to get in a second punch before hopping backwards to the opposite side of the ring to plan his next attack.

His opponent rolled forward, Andy thought he was gonna go for an upper cut but the kick-boxer stopped short and instead of dealing a punch, lashed out with another kick, the heal of his foot catching the young ninja in the shoulder. White Wolf came crashing to the floor. He rolled a few inches away from Hurricane Upper before regaining his footing.

It was only after Andy was standing again that the Muay Thai boxer continued his onslaught. So, he was a sportsman, he had waited for him to get back up. 'How nice of him.' The blond thought sarcastically as he attempted to block the onslaught of punches that he was now assaulted with.

Hurricane Upper was wicked fast and strong to boot, though Andy was blocking the majority of the kick-boxer's punches some were still getting through to his face, shoulders or collar-bone and the ones that didn't, still hurt his forearms like no other when he blocked them. He had allowed himself to be backed into a corner and now he had to get out of it.

Dropping to his knees pulled Andy out of the immediate line of punches and he heard the pleasing sound of Upper's fist colliding hard with the iron bars and chain-link fencing of the cage wall followed by a choice swear which this author will not translate. The blond ninja rolled forward, between the kick-boxer's legs and came up behind him with a devastating Shouryuu Dan which he was more than happy to announce as he landed six, no, seven consecutive hits.

"Shouryuu Dan!"

Upper clattered to the floor. The Announcer thought that the fight had been won and reentered the ring, the crowd booed loudly. This little up-start had once again trounced one of their favorites.

"Heh." Hurricane Upper climbed back to his feet, silencing the crowd and giving the Announcer pause. "That was pretty good." He wiped a bit of blood from the side of his mouth. He must have bit the inside of his cheek. "I just might get my full work out tonight."

The crowed cheered loudly when Hurricane Upper reassumed his fighting stance and the Announcer once again retreated out of the cage.

"Hn." Andy schooled his features into an impassive mask.

White Wolf's cool countenance once again seemed to grate on the Thai boxer's nerves. "Alright, see how you like this!"

Hurricane Upper once again dashed forward, his knee out to deal another lighting fast kick to the blond ninja only this time the kick-boxer's body seemed to become writhed in flamed and so dealt some second and third degree burns in addition to the normal battle damage.

Andy staggered, one hand on the cage wall for balance and hoped that Upper was still sportsman enough not to attack until he had regained some semblance of composure. The Thai boxer's knee had couth him in the chest and he gasped for air a few times before he was once again ready to face his opponent.

"Not bad." The ninja admitted, allowing a droll smile to grace his lips. But you're not the only one here with pyrokinetics. Zan-ei Ken!"

Now it was Andy's turn to rush forward, his body writhed in flames, his elbow out to impact Hurricane Upper in the chest and deal just as much physical and burn damage as the kick-boxer had dealt to him. The blond ninja leapt backward quickly in case his opponent was going to retaliate quickly, but he didn't.

"Not bad." He coughed. "Try this."

He seemed to deal an upper-cut punch to the air in front of him but no sooner was Andy confused by this action than his confusion turned to horror when he realized that a miniature tornado was now heading strait for him! He quickly threw his arms up to attempt to block the on-coming natural disaster. How did one evade something like that?

His body was thrown backwards against the cage wall and he thought he might possibly be crushed under the air pressure but no sooner had this occurred to him than the domestic tornado dissipated and was gone. Andy gazed across the ring at Hurricane Upper, 'hurricane' indeed, the name was inaccurate.

"You like that?" The Thai boxer shouted across the ring, probably thinking that Andy was going to give up after seeing that display of power.

"Yeah." Andy answered. "Now let me show you somethin'."

The ninja steadied himself, finding his still point and then delving into himself to find the place where his ki gathered. Over the years training with Jubei had had learned to do this much faster and with much greater control and so it took the boy only a moment's pause to bring forth an attack of pure fighting spirit.

"Hishou Ken!"

"The hell?" Upper threw up his arms as Andy had done in an attempt to shield himself from the attack. Though, this one could have been evaded by simply jumping over it. Hurricane Upper was also thrown against the wall of the cage as Andy had been.

Some where off to the side a buzzer sounded but the two fighters didn't seem to hear it, or if they did they didn't pay any attention to its significance.

The two charged each other, once again engaging in simple hand-to-hand tactics. They seemed to blurr into a collage of punches and kicks that were so fast it was difficult for the spectators to tell where one combatant ended and the other began.

The Announcer was at the door again.

"Time!" He shouted before unlocking and opening the cage door. The two didn't seem to hear him, so focused were they on their fight. "Time!"

Andy and Hurricane Upper just kept going. The Announcer sighed and walked back out of the ring only to walk back in again carrying a bucket of what appeared to be ice-cold water. This he threw on the two fighters. Yes, yes it was indeed ice-cold water. The two fighters disengaged long enough to gaze upon the Announcer in shock and shiver.

"What was that for?" Hurricane Upper demanded.

"I said 'Time'!" The Announcer explained testily. "As in the time is up. This fight has expired. We gotta end the fight and get on with the night."

Andy just wrung his hair out in silence. He wasn't even aware that these fights were timed. Good to know for the future though, it could play well into a strategy.

"Well, who won?" Upper demanded. Andy was also curious to know this.

"Well, which of you feel less hurt or less exhausted?"

"I'm fine." Upper announced. "I could go all night."

"So can I." Andy added. The two glared at one another.

The Announcer sighed. "Then I guess it's a draw." Then to the crowd, he held up both their arms and shouted, "Draw!"

There was such a loud roaring of "Boo" that Andy feared they might riot. It was a draw so neither of them had won and so no one got to collect any winnings on their bets.

"Well, who advances?" Upper demanded.

"I donno." The Announcer shrugged. "I don't make the rules, ask Mr. Six."

They did exactly that. Mr. Six was already waiting for them when they exited the ring that served as cage. He was flanked by Kitty and Kitten, though Andy still hadn't figured out which was which. His ledger was tucked under one arm, a pen behind his ear, his free arm on his hip in the pose of an irritated parent.

"Boys, boys, boys, I can't be having draws at my fights." He shook his head. "How do you expect me to make money with results like this?"

"You expect one of us to throw the fight?" Andy asked, crossing his arms over his chest. The action was meant to appear defiant but Six only raised an eyebrow and Andy realized that the bookie must have much more experience dealing with this sort of seedy underworld that he did.

"I only require the people I'm paying to throw fights for me." He answered. "As it is now, neither of you are on my group's pay roll so all I can do is give you a slap on the writs. No kneecaps tonight."

'Kneecaps?' Were these fights run by Yakuza?

"But still," Six continued; "only one of you can advance to the next tier. It seemed there's only one thing to be done."

"Continue outside?" Upper asked.

"Jan, Ken, Pon." Six smiled flippantly. "Best two out of three."

"Eh?" Andy struck dumb. He never would have thought that a mafia run underground fight ring would use such a simple means of solving their draws. It was just so juvenile.

Hurricane Upper faced Andy, his fist already in his hand. "Well, let's do this thing."

Andy seemed to not have a choice but to comply.

"Jan, Ken, Pon!" The two chimed in unison. The both of them chose rock.

"Ai, Kore, Sho!" They choired again. This time Andy chose paper to cover Upper's rock. Unfortunately for the fair-haired fighter Hurricane Upper had not chosen rock but scissors this time. Scissors cut paper, Hurricane Upper got to advance to the next round.

Jubei seemed to materialize next to Andy at that moment. This caused Upper to jump but Six and his escorts seemed un-phased.

"So, Six," The old man began, "I couldn't help but notice that the fight came to a draw…" He rubbed his hands together expectantly.

The bookie sighed. "That is did, Demon-kun. Damn you, you've got the devil's luck. Come to my office and we'll settle."

The bookie left followed closely by his escorts, Kitty and Kitten. Jubei made to follow but then paused, muttering to Andy, "There's a little bar down the street. Why don't you go have a drink or something."

Andy did not want a drink. He still didn't remember what had happened the last time he'd drunk. But he knew when he was being dismissed and so left for the bar.

…

Andy hadn't been in the bar long before Hurricane Upper entered and seeing him seated in at booth in a back corner invited himself to sit down next to the blond ninja.

"I like you, White Wolf." The Thai boxer announced. "All the years I've been goin' to the fights here in Japan you're the first to give me a real challenge.

"Hn." Andy didn't really care.

"Now back in Thai Land… back there people know how to fight! I'd almost given-up on finding decent opponents here in my homeland. Oi!" He flagged down a waitress. "Two for me and my buddy."

Andy scooted just a bit away from Hurricane Upper, not wanting to be known as his 'buddy'.

"So what's you're real name?" He asked when the sake had arrived. He ignored the little cups that had come with their drinks and took a swig directly from the bottle. "You look kinda German. Siegfried?"

Andy cringed.

"No? Russian then. Dmitri?"

Andy's face fell into the palm of his hand. What this guy really going to go all through out northern Europe?

"Well, c'mon. You gotta give me a hint."

"Give me your name, Upper and I'll give you mine." He decided to make it easier on the both of them. He didn't much care for Hurricane Upper's guessing game and he had a feeling that he had pretty much exhausted his supply of western names with just those two.

"Gads! He speaks!" Upper smiled jovially. "I'm Higashi Joe, you might have heard of me. I'm rather famous."

Andy had no idea who he was.

"I'm so renowned and loved they even named a mountain range after me. Ever hear of Higashiyama?"

Andy couldn't help but snort. He lived in the Higashiyama Mountains! They were not named after this little upstart whom he'd never even heard of.

Higashi made an irritated face at the blond ninja's snort. "Alright then, I've told you my name. Now who're you?"

"Andy Bogard." Andy answered and then got an idea. "And I've also got a mountain range named after me. Ever hear of the Andes?"

He glared at Joe, daring the other to call him out in the obvious lie. Higashi just glared back knowing that to call bull-shit on Andy Bogard would also be admitting to his own bull-shit claim. Finally the kick-boxer sighed and picked his drink back up.

"Looks like we're both awesome fighters."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been many years and I am STILL laughing about those Higashiyama/Andes mountains jokes. I know, I'm so lame.


	18. Unexpected Guest

Andy and Jubei stayed in Tokyo that night, the trains between Tokyo, Niigata and Higashiyama stopped running after midnight (but even if they had been running, Andy was sure that his master would have still insisted on staying the night so that he could ride home during the day when the train would be packed with young attractive school girls, sometimes the old lecher went out of his way to be sukebe).

They spent the night in a cheap motel, the kind that lonely businessmen take loose girls to for an evening of scandalous behavior. Andy did not appreciate the quizzical look he and his master got from the man behind the lobby desk and couldn't wait for the next day when they could return to Higashiyama and their normal training regimen. Tokyo and the underground fighting ring was a lovely diversion and useful practice, be he much preferred the natural tranquility of the Yamada dojo to the obnoxious noise and blaring lights or the capitol.

...

As Andy had expected Jubei-sensei chose the busiest rush hour for them to return to their mountain home. The train from Tokyo station to Niigata was packed with high school and collage students all clad in either their school uniforms or short skirts of some other variety.

"Andy," his master whispered to him when they entered the train car, "I'm gonna teach you a skill that, while not pertinent to your current goal, will no less be useful for you through out the course of your life."

Knowing what the old judo master prioritized as 'useful life skills', Andy couldn't help but swallow in apprehension. He did not want to get kicked off the train or worse arrested for sexual harassment. He still remembered the day Hanzo-sensei had had to go down and bail Jubei out because he couldn't keep his hands to himself.

"I'm going to teach you the subtle art of groping."

The knot of apprehension in Andy's throat sank to become a stone of dread in his stomach. His master was indeed going to get them both arrested. "Sensei, I don't really think now's such a good time…" He cast his brain around for a suitable excuse, knowing the Jubei wouldn't accept 'I don't want to', as a suitable excuse not to.

"Nonsense. This is the perfect time." The old master insisted. "Its rush hour and the trains are packed, the surplus bodies will provide extra cover so no meddling 'heroes' can come over and interfere and most importantly of all, this is the only time you'll get this many young girls to choose from! School age girls are so much easier, they lack the independence and audacity of older women and are less likely to make a scene."

Andy could not believe what he was hearing. He was actually being taught how to become a sexual predator. "Sensei, I don't think this is such a good idea…"

The aged judo master ignored his incomplete protest as he continued his lecture. "Now, you want to stay away from girls in groups, when females travel in packs they draw support from one another and will be more likely to raise an alarm. Also, you want to beware of women and girls with a confident or assured air about them, women like that are the type to grab your arm and drag you off the train at the next stop to turn you in."

"Is that how you were arrested, Sensei?" The young ninja asked, hoping to dissuade his master from this course of action by reminding him of the consequences of his actions.

"A mistake on my part." Jubei brushed off the question. "I made a misjudgment." The old master turned his attention to studying the throng of people in their compartment; he zeroed in on a girl and pointed her out to Andy. "Her, go test your aptitude on that girl and I'll give you some more coaching after we see how you do."

"Sensei, I really don't feel comfortable with this." He wasn't used to talking back to his mentors and so was very meek when he said this. But to spite his meek and timid appearance Andy couldn't help but feel an internal feeling of revulsion at the idea or violated the personal space of a complete stranger. Jeff had taught him and Terry to respect people's personal space and to respect women. What Jubei was telling him to do violated both of those deeply ingrained lessons.

"That's exactly why you need practice." The judo master insisted. "It'll get easier over time and practice. No go on."

Andy did not want to go over and molest the girl in question but he also didn't want his master to keep pestering him about it. He moved through the densely packed train car intending to stand close to the girl where his master couldn't see his hands and wait until she got off the train. There by satisfying Jubei's desire to see Andy jaded while not violating the morals his father had taught him.

That plan changed when he actually got to the girl, however.

As fate would have it, the poor girl was already being molested by another man, a short and stocky businessman with balding hair was rubbing her butt vigorously enough to raise her skirt. Andy stood in shock for a moment or two, neither he nor his master had seen any indication that she was already in distress from their vantage point in the train car nor did this girl seem to be fighting back in any way. On the contrary, she was just standing there and taking it to spite her obvious lack of consent. The morals Jeff had instilled in him would not stand for this kind of behavior.

The young ninja reached a hand out and grabbed the man's wrist, pulling his hand up and away from the girl's backside he said, "Excuse me. I don't think she much like's you molesting her like that."

"Teme wa, gaki?" The man snarled. (Trans: "Who are you, brat?")

"A concerned passenger." The blond answered and tightened his grip on the man's wrist enough to bruise. "But who I am isn't important. I wonder what the authorities would think of you feeling-up a girl young enough to be your daughter." He nodded to the front of the train.

The man bit the inside of his cheek and wrenched his hand out of Andy's grasp, pulling the sleeve of his blazer over the handprint the ninja had left there. "The bitch isn't worth it."

Andy smirked in triumph as he watched the man wade through the crowded train car on his way to the doors, presumably to get off at the next stop. The boy turned his attention back to the girl. "Are you okay, ojou-san?"

"H-hai." She answered meekly and bowed politely. "Domo."

She blushed daintily and Andy suddenly found himself very annoyed by her bland and submissive behavior. Mai would never have been so timid or compliant, not that he went around comparing other women to childhood training partner or anything.

"Shout for help or something next time." He advised her. "If you don't want that kind of attention then you don't have to put up with it."

"H-hai." She nodded.

Her response grated on his nerves even more. Did she answer everything with a stuttered 'Y-yes'? The blond ninja decided to give up on her and wove through the crowd back to where his master had been waiting and observing.

Jubei shook his head when Andy returned. "M'boy, that was worse than a fail. I sent you over there to be and man and you became a freaking 'White Knight'."

Andy had no idea what a 'White Knight' was supposed to be within the context of the conversation but from the way his master said it, it wasn't what he was supposed to be. Which, given the type of lesson, was exactly what Andy wanted to be.

…

When Andy and Jubei finally returned to the Yamada dojo that afternoon they were greeted with the scent of fresh sukiyaki. The two fighters stood in the entryway and exchanged identical looks of dismay.

"Were you expecting anyone?" The old judo master asked.

"I have no social life, Sensei." The boy reminded him.

The two followed the delicious scent to the kitchen and beheld a young woman with her back to them. She was stirring the contents of a shallow iron pot, presumably the sukiyaki they smelled, while she hummed a little tune to herself.

"Excuse me?" Andy ventured at the mysterious woman.

"Oh, you're back!" The woman turned to reveal herself to be not a mysterious stranger at all but Shiranui Mai. It felt like it had been ages since Andy had last seen her; he was surprised he even recognized her at all.

Her face had finally filled out and exchanged the roundness of youth for an appealing heart shape that was elegantly framed by her bangs and forelocks. He breasts had grown some more as well, they were practically bursting from the winter top she wore and Andy swore he could see the delicate buds of her nipples poking out through the thick fabric. He waist had shrunk as well and her hips had finally finished that round cure they had been developing when he left, giving her an almost perfect hourglass figure. Andy felt himself go rigid at the sight of her and hoped the stiff fabric of his blue jeans could conceal it.

"Oh, Mai!" Jubei exclaimed, all smiles. "How nice of you to visit. And look how much you've grown!"

Andy wasn't sure how his master had moved so fast, but some how, the old judo master had gone from standing right beside the blond ninja to right in front of Mai in less than a second. He closed his hands over he breasts and squeezed.

"Let go!" One of Mai's sensu fans appeared in her, seemingly out of nowhere, and she smacked Jubei hard across the face with it. "Sukebe-jiji."

Andy just stood there, not sure of what he was supposed to do. Be he was sure of one thing: That was how a woman was supposed to react to inappropriate touching.

"Is that anyway to treat your elder?" The old judo master sobbed from where he now sat crumpled on the kitchen floor, a bright red fan-shaped welt on his face.

Mai ignored him and turned her attention to his blond apprentice. "Hello, Andy."

"Uh, hi." And then after a brief pause, "Ohisashiburi desu ne."

"I made lunch for you." She said awkwardly and Andy wondered if it was because she could easily see how attractive he was finding her. They were old training buddies, there was no reason for there to be this odd awkwardness between the two of them.

"You made lunch for him but not me?" Jubei asked, climbing to his feet.

"You lost your eating privileges." The kunoichi snapped at him.

"Uh… thanks. What are you doing here." Not that the blond ninja wasn't ungrateful for the meal (it would certainly be better than his own or his master's cooking) but he was still confused as to why she had broken into the dojo while they were away.

Mai lifted the sukiyaki with two thick pot-holders and carried it to the dining table. "Oh well, Winter Break just started and I asked Ojisama and 'Touchan if I could train here for the week before New Years."

"I… see…" Andy sat down at the table opposite her and accepted the bowl of raw beaten egg she handed him. He spooned out a helping of thinly sliced beef and cubed tofu to mix with it. "So you'll only be here a week?"

"Why? You wish I could stay longer?" She asked coyly, fluttering her eyelashes in sultry mocking.

"I just wanted to know how long you'll be under-foot." The blond shot back stoically. "You did show up unexpected and uninvited."

Mai huffed and laughed flippantly from behind her fan. "You should be honored that I dinged to grace this pathetic little dojo with my presence."

"'Pathetic'? 'Little'?" Jubei echoed, insulted. "My home, this is!"

Mai ignored him.

Andy merely shrugged and turned his attention to the food that was before him. Jubei took this opportunity, while Mai's vision was partially obscured by her own fan, to sneak up to the table in an attempt to get at the deadly beauty's cooking. The deadly beauty in question quickly snapped her fan shut and smacked the judo master's hand with it.

"Itai, that smarts." Jubei quickly pulled his hand away. "You just like hitting me, don't you!"

Mai's knee-jerk reaction was to come back with something along the lines of, 'No, you just like being hit.' But though better of it. The lecherous old coot might take that as an invitation for "spankings" and she really didn't want that. So instead the kunoichi just shrugged and tuned her attention back to the blond bishounnen across from her.

"So, where'd you two just get back from?"

"Tokyo." Andy answered flatly.

"Oh, that sounds fun. What'd you do there?"

"Fought in an illegal underground fighting competition." Andy said this with such a strait face and casual manner that Mai had to pause a moment to be sure she had understood correctly.

"I… see…"

The blond ninja helped himself to another helping of sukiyaki. "This is really good, by the way."

A wide smile played over her features. "Really? I'm glad you like it, 'Touchan's been teaching me how to cook and Ojisama keeps saying that I'm better than him but I think he's just saying that 'casue he's my ojisama. You really like it?"

"Uh… I believe I already said I did."

"I'd like some…" Jubei humphed. Being denied a meal cooked by the beautiful Mai was bad enough but to have the two of them sit there and talk about how delicious it was right in front of him was just cruel. He was supposed to be the master here, where had the respect gone?

The old judo master glanced between his apprentice and the lovely kunoichi and couldn't help but notice that they were looking at each other far more than they were their food. Figures, a pretty face and sexy body walk through the door and suddenly Andy doesn't care about his ageing old master anymore.

"Andy…" Jubei ventured. "Since Mai-chan is going to be staying with a for a bit, why don't you make up a room for her?"

"Ah, hai, Sensei." The boy quickly finished the contents of his bowel and stood.

"I'll help you." Mai said, also standing. After the old judo master's initial reaction to finding her in his house she did not want to be left alone with him. The kunoichi grabbed Andy by the arm, pressing his elbow between her breasts (making him blush) and followed him down the hall.

And Jubei had been left alone with the food.

…

Having Mai staying with them at the Yamada dojo was vexing. She often complained about the lack of indoor heating, electric lights or any real modern comforts. Andy came to almost be able to tell the time by how she would suddenly sigh and exclaim, "How can you people live like this!?"

Jubei didn't seem to mind all that much. The old man would smile and dismiss her discomfort by offering to warm her himself. These offers were usually followed by a smack to the head with a fan or a punch to solar plexus.

On the other hand, it was nice having another person to spar against. Mai had been taught in the same style of ninjitsu as he had, but Andy quickly found out that after his time spent under the instruction of Jubei-sensei his own rendition of the style had diverged from the original enough to make some of Mai's moves unfamiliar to him. Of course, the fact that her costume was very distracting might have contributed to that as well.

Gads, that costume! It was like she was still wearing the same red gi she had worn back when she was twelve, the same red gi. As in, she was wearing an outfit that was two sizes to small for her. Almost every inch of her body threatened to burst from its fabric confines at any moment when she moved. Add that to the fact that the winter chill made her nipples poke through the material and it really was needless to say that her costume and the body underneath it were both very distracting.


	19. Know You

Andy blew air through a bamboo pipe to feed the fire underneath the Yamada dojo's outdoor bathhouse. Today had been a particularly rigorous day and he was looking forward to the hot bath. It had been the sole thought in his mind as he had filled bucket after bucket with water from the pump, it had filled his mind with images of reclining in the wood lined tub letting the hot steamy water work out the kinks in his tired muscles as he carried the water to fill the tub. He had dreamed of cleansing himself of the sweat and dirt of the day's activities as he chopped wood for the fire to heat his water. And now, finally, with one final puff of air into said fire he could finally take his long awaited bath.

The blond ninja popped into his bedroom in the dojo's main house to quickly strip off his dirty white pants and tunic and don a bathrobe. Andy padded across the courtyard that had been shoveled clean of snow and slid open the bathhouse door in high spirits.

"Shut the door! You're letting all the warm air out!"

"M-Mai!"

Andy stood fixed and frozen in the doorway. Mai sat stark naked in the warm bath that was supposed to be his! The water came up to just above her nipples but was still clear enough so as not to obscure the intimate parts of her body from his view. The blond ninja awkwardly tuned his back to the buxom beauty.

"This is my bath!" He snarled out the still open door. "What are you doing in it?"

To spite the frigid air that was blowing on his face, Andy could feel his cheeks warming and he knew that a bright blush was painting itself across his face, but then again, a blush was the least of the physical effects finding Mai naked and in his bath had on him.

"You guys don't have hot and cold running water here so I thought you were just being accommodating and drawing a bath for me." She explained. Andy didn't turn to see, but he head the water shift in the tub and thought she might have reclined back in the warm water. "But I don't see a problem with us sharing the bath. After all, the tub is big enough for the both of us. Now, will you please shut the door?"

For get the blush to his cheeks, Andy went positively rigid at the idea of being naked and wet with Mai. "Please, just leave."

"No." Was her flat reply. "I'm the one who's already wet and naked. I'm not getting out of this tub until I'm finished. You're still dressed; you can go back out and wait for me. If you're not gonna share then you have to leave."

At this Andy wheeled around in anger. "Now look, you!" He stalked toward her, ignoring the way the water's refraction only seemed to complement her delicious curves. He stopped right at the edge of the tub, had he curled his tow over the brim he could have broken the surface. "I made this bath for me! I pumped and carried the water, I chopped the wood, I stoked the fire… this is my bath, now get the f- out!"

The irate ninja bent down and hoisted Mai up out of the water by he under arms. He carried her bridal style to the open door all the wile ignoring her shouts of "Andy! What are you doing! Put me down!"

He did put he down, in a manner of speaking. Andy chucked her out the open bathhouse door and let her plop down naked in the snow. He threw her own bathrobe, towel and slippers out after her and slammed the door.

…

Andy entered the house after his bath to find Mai and Jubei-sensei in the kitchen.

Mai sat on a cushion close to the wood-burning stove with a heavy haori draped over her shoulders. She shivered slightly and glared daggers at him when she saw him standing in the doorway. Jubei handed a mug of some steaming liquid to her along with the order, "Drink this."

"What's goin' on?" Andy asked like a clueless moron.

Mai opened her mouth to speak but was cutoff by the old judo master. "You and I need to have a talk, boy."

Jubei crossed the distance between them and, grabbing Andy by the arm, dragged him from the kitchen. The paused in the hall and Andy once again asked what was the matter.

"You're an idiot, Andy. Ya know that? I like, but you're a real idiot." Jubei crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his pupil. "You do NOT throw a woman out into the snow in the dead of winter completely naked! If Hanzo where here, he'd deck you."

The blond winced. Throwing Mai out of the bathhouse in his frustration hadn't been the best idea he'd ever had. In retrospect it was probably up there with one of the worst ideas he'd ever had. At best she could have caught a cold and at worst she could have caught hypothermiate and die. Jeff would never forgive him that, neither would Hanzo-sensei or Jubei-sensei for that matter. He should apologize to her at the very least.

Jubei watched the boy's expression change and knew that he understood his wrong. "Now then, for your punishment." He said. "You are to take care of Mai for the remainder of her visit. She won't be with us much longer since she was only staying for a week anyway. Make sure she stays warm. If she gets sick make her some broth. Whatever. And when she's gone we'll have a different talk."

"Hai, Sensei." Andy nodded and then turned back to the kitchen to take over where his master had left off.

"Oh, and Andy…" Before the boy had the chance to register what was happening Jubei swung upwards with his fist, punching the blond ninja squarely in the jaw. "… That's for almost giving Hanzo's little girl hypothermia."

Andy reentered the kitchen massaging his sore jaw. Mai glanced up at him once before turning her attention back to the mug of hot tea Jubei had given her. Andy sighed, so she was giving him the cold shoulder, fine; let her be angry, he deserved it.

The blond ninja turned his attention to the stove. The kettle sat on a back burner half empty. One of the front burners was occupied by a simmering pot of what appeared to be broth, he gave this a stir with the ladle and then stood in awkward silence, not knowing what else to say or do.

"Uh, look I'm sorry." He ventured after a pregnant pause.

"Humph." Mai turned her head to the side to avoid meeting his eyes. She sipped daintily at her tea and pointedly ignored him.

Andy ladled out a portion of the simmering broth into a bowl and offered it Mai.

"I said I'm sorry." The blond ninja attempted a second time. "Will you forgive me?"

Mai accepted the offered broth and sipped it slowly before asking. "Why should I?"

Andy sighed and sat down on the hard kitchen across from her. In all honesty, he had to admit to himself that she didn't have to forgive him and really didn't have any good reason to forgive him. Her forgiveness shouldn't even have mattered to him all that much anyway. Whether or not Shiranui Mai liked him or not was not pertinent to his training or his ultimate goal of avenging his father. But still…

"I'd like it if you forgave me." He said.

"Oh?" She lifted one skeptical eyebrow.

"I mean, its not necessary or anything." He continued awkwardly. "Whether or not you stay mad at me won't really effect my training or my goal but…" Andy paused for a moment, unsure of how to word this next bit so that she didn't get the wrong idea. Finally, he decided that no matter how he phrased it, she would read too much into it so it didn't matter. "You're good opinion is important to me for some reason."

"Oh?" She asked again but in a very different tone.

He felt she was fishing for some further explanation, but he didn't feel like saying any more on the subject. Andy averted his gaze and said, "Do as you please."

"I will." Mai hmphed in return.

…

Mai warmed up over the course of dinner to Andy's great relief (he didn't want to have to keep waiting on her after all), but the vexing kunoichi still made him bring her an extra blanket when she retired for that evening. The blond ninja knocked on the wood frame of her door before interring.

"Come in." She called.

Andy stepped inside; Mai had already tucked herself under the covers and peered over them at him as he entered. Her intense gaze made him feel awkward and exposed, almost like she were stalking him with her eyes or something.

"Uh, here." He held out the blanket to her hoping she would just take it and let him leave. She was sufficiently warm again and far from any possible danger of hypothermia, there was no reason for him to keep waiting on her like an invalid.

"Will you spread it over me?" Mai asked in a voice that was just a bit to coy for Andy's liking. But he complied with her request all the same. Walking to her bedside, he spread the blanket out on top of her and knelt down to tuck the edges in under the futon.

The moment he was on his knees beside her, Mai's hand snaked out from beneath her cocoon of blankets and closed around Andy's wrist. The blond fighter looked at her in momentary surprise before he became wary of the sultry look in her eyes.

"You didn't react the way I expected you to." She said softly.

"Huh?" Andy blinked in confusion.

"In the bathhouse…" She rolled onto her side so as to better speak with him, her motion causing the blankets to shift off of her delicate shoulders. Andy saw no sign of a nightgown or other such bedclothes and swallowed. "… Any other guy I know –and even some women- would have jumped in with me. They would have loved the chance to rub up against me all soapy and wet."

Andy swallowed a lump in his throat.

"But you," she continued, "you just got angry. You actually threw me out! I've never been rejected before." Mai shook her head. "And I had actually wanted you, too. The truth is, Andy…" She lowered her head but continued to look up at him through her long eyelashes, "… I was kinda trying to seduce you."

This actually did not surprise him one bit. There was, however, one question as to, "Why?"

"Because… because I'm engaged." She growled out word as if it were a condemnation. "Because I'm gonna turn sixteen in a little less than a week and when that happens the family is gonna force me to marry Koinosuke. I just… I don't want Koi-tan to be the only man I've ever known!"

Andy leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest in disapproval. He, personally, didn't like the idea of Mai's marriage to Koinosuke either, but that was no reason to go sleeping around and especially not with him.

"But I went about it the wrong way." She continued, sitting up. "You're a very practical and straightforward person and I should have been trait with you from the start. Andy…" She let the blankets covering her ample bosoms to fall, revealing the smooth lightly tanned flesh of her breasts. "… Will you make love to me?" She finished.

He was silent a moment, his eyes studying her full round breasts and the peaks of her nipples.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt…'

He went rigid with excitement at the idea of reveling in so exquisite a body.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt…'

He opened his mouth to give his answer…

"No." Firm, definite. He wanted her, but had enough brains and enough self-control to say no. If the family found out they'd kill him, or at the very least find a way to get him deported and he still wasn't ready to face Geese and avenge his father just yet. And so, his answer was, "No."

"What!" Mai gathered up her blankets to cover herself in embarrassment and hurt pride. She glared daggers at him. "Why not? I'm attractive. I've seen the way you look and me and your… hmph those nice loose fitting pants you like to wear might be perfect for martial arts, but they do nothing to conceal just how much you admire me." She indulged in a mordant smirk at his bright blush of embarrassment. "So what's the problem?"

"You're engaged to another man!" He thought that would have been obvious, but there were other reasons as well. "And I'm not some 'boy-toy' that you can just pick up, use and then cast aside. Go buy a dildo if all you want is sex! I know we haven't really seen each other in a while, but do you really under-value me so much at to use me as your little man-whore? They have red-light districts for a reason, Mai!"

Her mouth fell open, aghast. "Oh, Andy, no. I didn't mean to make you think… I mean I thought you would've been happy to… Well no I just feel terrible." Mai lowered her eyes and hugged her knees to her chest. "I just wish I didn't have to marry Koi-tan."

"Then don't." Andy snapped.

"I have to." She muttered into her knees.

"No, you don't." He insisted. "Look, what's the reason you have to marry him in the first place? Because the rest of the family is unsure whether or not you can lead the clan on your own, right?"

She nodded.

"Then just prove to them that you don't need Koinosuke to be a strong and capable leader and you shouldn't have to marry him." He made it sound so simple.

"And how am I supposed to do that, exactly?"

"Well, you could start by acting like a real ninja and no some sniveling brat." Andy stood and began passing the room. "You're the granddaughter of the Head of the Clan, a princess, act like one! So you're trapped in an engagement that you don't want, bear it with pride while still seeking alternatives. There's more to being a good ninja than bloodlines and heredity."

"Andy…" She muttered. "You would make an excellent clan leader."

The blond ninja sighed and crouched back down next to her. He took her face in his hand and made her look at him. "I wouldn't marry you."

"What?" She blinked. "Why not!"

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt…' He didn't intend to marry anyone. Ever.

"Because I would want a wife that could stand on her own two feet." He said. "Because marriage is a partnership and I don't want a partner I have to drag to the top with me. I plan to he the best I possibly can be and if my wife wants to be there with me she's got to climb up on her own."

He glanced down at Mai to see if his words were having any impact before continuing. "If you don't wanna marry Koinosuke then don't. It's your own damn life and you should live it your own damn way. And if you still wanna lead the clan after your grandfather you can do that too."

"But-"

"Don't let them tell you 'no', don't listen to them, don't let them hold you down. If you're strong then you'll dominate them, you'll show them that you're a great ninja and a capable leader, that you're the best in Japan for all they know. And you'll do it because you are, because you're Shiranui Mai."

"Andy…" Mai's cheeks colored daintily. "You really think so…?"

He blinked and realized that he'd let his mouth run away with him. "Anyway, its late. I should go."

The blond ninja turned to leave, but Mai once again grabbed his wrist.

"If I can do it…" She said. "If I can break-off the engagement, if I can prove that I'm strong and capable, if I can become the number one in Japan… would you marry me if I did that? If I could stand with you at the top?"

"I…" 'Don't get attached, don't get hurt…' "Its late, Mai. I should be getting to be."

"Of course." She let him go.

…

The end of Mai's week at the Yamada dojo came all to quickly, or perhaps not quick enough.

Andy entered the kitchen after his morning workout to find Mai dressed in city clothes washing dishes in the kitchen basin.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready to go?" He asked awkwardly, not wanting to sound rude, like he was kicking her out.

"I just wanted to make sure I left the place as clean as I found it." She replied without turning to face him. She had been avoiding him as best she could since her failed attempt to seduce him and the subsequent lecture that had ensued. "You know what a germ-phobe Jubei-sensei is."

"Yeah." He nodded. "Do you want some help?"

"I'm pretty much done." She said, rinsing off one final plate and placing it in the drying rack. "But if you want you can dump out the water."

"Sure."

Mai stepped aside to let him lift the heavy basin of dirty water out of the "sink" and carry it outside. Andy out to one of the trees that leaned over the dojo's property line, carful not to spill any of the water as he went. He didn't much feel like scraping ice off the courtyard after this. He dumped the water over the roots of a tree and hurried back inside, out of the cold.

Mai was gone when he returned to the kitchen.

He didn't know why, but Andy suddenly found himself dashing through the house and out the front door. He paused at the top of the stairs.

Mai was already at the bottom, a bright red, sporty looking two-door had pulled up to the curb and the driver got out to open the passenger side door for her. The man leaned in for a kiss and after a moment's hesitation she brushed her lips against his. So that was Koinosuke then.

He looked good, Andy supposed. It was difficult to guess his build underneath his winter jacket but he looked to be about the same height and approximate weight as Andy. His hair was about the same length as well, only in ebony rather than gold.

Feeling someone watching him, Koinosuke looked up to see Andy Bogard glaring back at him from atop the stairs to the Yamada dojo. He waved up at the hakujin to acknowledge his presence. But was glad when Andy made no move to come down and talk. He really had nothing to say to Hanzo-sama's pet project.

Andy did not return the wave Koinosuke sent him. Instead, the blond ninja just turned and walked back into the house.

"You okay?" Jubei was waiting for him in the entrance hall.

"Fine." Andy clipped. "Why?"

"No reason."


	20. Mai Time

Jubei had intended to give his pupil a long lecture on refusing young, attractive women who turned up naked in his baths, but after overhearing Andy's little speech to her and seeing his reaction when she left, it was obvious to the old judo master that there was more going on than simple attraction and teenage awkwardness.

…

Koinosuke pulled his car up to the foot of the steps leading up to the Shiranui main house to drop Mai off. She thanked him for the ride and turned to go home. Her fiancé pulled away from the curb to go and find street parking.

"Tadaima!" The kunoichi called as she pulled off her shoes and laid them out neatly so that she could pull back on easily the next time she went out.

"Okairi." Kazutaka poked his head out of the kitchen to greet her. He held a semi-wet plate in one hand and a dishtowel in the other, apparently interrupted in the middle of washing dishes. "Is Koinosuke-kun coming in too?"

"I guess." Mai shrugged. She didn't much care what Koinosuke did or didn't do. He did not occupy her thoughts on a regular basis except for when she contemplated the impending misery her marriage to him would bring. Andy's words suddenly leapt to mind unbidden, 'If you don't want to marry him, then don't.'

Mai tossed her travel bag in her room and flopped down on her futon to brood. He made it sound so easy. Just don't marry him, feh. If it were really that easy she wouldn't be so bothered.

'Act like a real ninja, not some sniveling brat!'

Was she really sniveling and brat-ish? She supposed she was immature for someone in her position but Mai didn't think she was being a brat about it, nor did she think she was sniveling. Andy was just being melodramatic; he did have a tendency to the emotional and by extension to drama.

'Bear it with pride while still seeking alternative.'

Still, emotionally volatile and melodramatic as he was, Andy had managed to give some decent advice. She was the granddaughter of the clan's current leader, as the future co-leader she should act the part. No one would want to follow, or even listen to, a whiny brat who couldn't see past her own problems to recognize and meet the needs of her clan.

But following that train of thought perhaps she should marry Koi-tan. If it was for the benefit of the clan what did her feelings matter? But then that raised the question of whether or not Koinosuke would be a reliable leader. He was, after all, Nagare's grandson and Nagare was selfish and petty, a bad combination in one with ambitions. Knowing her uncle, Mai was sure he would try to control the clan through Koi and Koinosuke would most likely be nothing more than his grandfather's puppet.

But the clan would turn a blind eye to that, to Koinosuke being nothing but Nagare's doll, because Koi-tan had the right pedigree. Mai suddenly found that she was very angry. Angry at the clan for preferring Koinosuke over her to spite the fact that she knew she was better than him. Angry at her mother for not being a ninja or even Japanese, angry at her father for loving her mother, just angry.

'There's more to being a good ninja than bloodlines and heredity.'

Again, Andy's words invaded her thoughts.

"There's more to being the leader of a ninja clan than intelligence and capability." She informed her empty room.

The door to her room slid open and the kunoichi suppressed a frown as her betrothed entered unbidden.

"I thought I might find you here." He sat down next to her. "Who were you talking to just now?"

"Myself." She answered placidly. She really wished Koinosuke were as opposed to their union as she was. At least then she might have an ally or, if worst came to worst, they could at least bond over their mutual distaste over the whole thing. But sadly, the young ninja was actually pleased with the arrangement. He liked her and he wanted her for a wife.

"Did you have anything interesting to say?" He smiled as if what he'd just made a rather witty joke.

"No." She forced an amused smile on her face to humor him. "I was just contemplating what it was to be a ninja-princess."

Koinosuke caught a hint of her heavy mood underneath the mask of amusement she wore. He took one of her hands in his saying, "It means being smart…" he kissed her cheek, "… and funny…" he kissed the other cheek, "… and cute…" he kissed her forward and then held her face in his hands gazing deep into her eyes, "… and completely bat-shit crazy."

"Ugh." She pushed him away.

"No, really." He allowed himself to fall backwards and sprawl on the floor. "I mean have you seen some of the stuff we ninja do? Really, we're all bat-shit insane."

Mai did have to smile at little at that.

Koinosuke sat back up and leaned forward, resting his hands on his ankles. "Anyway, I asked Hanzo-sama if I could stay here until after your birthday. I mean, I'd be coming back after New Years anyway and this way we get to spend more time together."

More time with Koinosuke, great, that was just what Mai wanted.

Mai muttered something non-committal to acknowledge that she'd heard him but didn't comment. Her thoughts drifted back to that conversation she's had with Andy the night of her failed attempt to seduce him.

'Marriage is a partnership and I don't want a partner I have to drag…'

Koinosuke was a decent fighter but when it came to practical things like managing accounts and dealing with people he fell short. He also differed to others' advice when making decisions instead of keeping his own council, that in and of itself wasn't all that bad, but Koi did it to the point of not really having any opinions of his own. Mai would have to drag him as dead weight, extra baggage instead of a partner to help her lead the clan.

"Koi-tan," she said suddenly, "what are you gonna do when you become the new Clan Leader?"

"When we become the new Clan Leaders." He corrected her. "I'm not really sure, I hadn't thought about it much. I guess I'll just do what Ojisama tells me until I get the hang of it myself."

Mai frowned at his answer.

"Don't make that face." He said as if she were taking a light conversation to seriously. "A frown doesn't belong on a face as pretty as yours."

It was meant to be a complement but it only succeeded in irritating her further. Rather than having to sit and put up with more of Koinosuke's attentions she stood to leave. "I'm going to see if there's anything I can help 'Touchan with." She said. "I've also got to make a room up for you if you're gonna be staying here."

"I thought I'd just sleep with you." He said, shifting his position from sitting on the floor to laying on her futon.

Mai rolled her eyes in annoyance. "We'll see."

…

With the lights turned off and her eyes closed it was easy for Mai to pretend. She pretended that the long hair she stroked between her fingers was golden and not ebony. She pretended that the man's skin was alabaster, and not jasper, that his eyes were a pale icy-blue and not infinity black, that the face was a different face. She imagined a different man all together.

But that man was a man she couldn't have, it seemed. A man whom (barring an act of the gods) her clan would not allow her to marry, a man whom had rejected her when she's offered him her body and again when she's offered him her hand. A man who's steadfastness, commitment and drive made him so very desirable and at the same time so very unattainable.

As the man whom she was with pushed her to a climax she could not hold back. She lost her inhibitions and gasped his name aloud.

"Andy…"

"What?" Koinosuke paused in his ministrations. "What did you call me?"

The ninja prince pushed himself up and stood to turn on a light. He glared down at Mai, his arms crossed over his bare chest and he asked again, "What did you call me?"

Mai clutched the blankets around her. She had made a terrible blunder and she knew it. How many nights had she gone imagining Andy in the place of her current betrothed? How many nights had she done so without the slightest slip, the slightest hint of her true thoughts? Many. So, why did she let slip now? Now when she had finally resolved to free herself from this bondage of an engagement.

She avoided Koinosuke's glare and said nothing.

"You called me 'Andy'." He said. "You called me by the name of that hakujin foreigner. Is that what you were doing at the Yamada dojo then? Him?"

"No." Mai said in a firm and defining tone.

"But you want him." Koinosuke continued. "You must have been thinking of him in the place of me."

"Yes." Mai admitted.

Koi's tone changed suddenly, his voice becoming broken and melancholy. "You want him instead of me."

Mai remained silent. She knew that Koinosuke actually liked her, that he had actually been looking forward to their eminent marriage and that he had hoped that she marrying him would make her happy. Her admittance that she envisioned another man in his place must be a hard blow to his pride and heart.

"Is that how its going to be then?" He avoided her eyes, his ebony locks falling across his face, obscuring his features. "Will I always be a stand-in for someone else in your eyes?"

Again, she was silent.

"Jezz, Mai! You could have at lease chosen a better man. The hakujin! Really?" His melancholy had faded into a fresh wave of anger. "Why not give your affection to someone actually worthy of you? A ninja from the Kisaragi clan, maybe? But the hakujin! The hakujin! How can you prefer him over me?"

"He's as skilled a ninja as any member of the clan."

"He's a foreigner, not one of us. He's not a member of our clan."

Mai shook her head slowly. "He is a member of the clan. He has been raised in out clan since he was nine, he's been taught our style of ninjitsu, he knows our secrets… he is one of us."

"And he would be your choice…" Koinosuke shrugged his yukata over his shoulders and tied it shut with a sash. "If could marry whom ever you willed, you'd choose him over me?"

Now it was Mai's turn to avoid his eyes. "If he would have me."

"You know the family would never let you two marry." Koi reminded her acidly. "You'd both be kicked out of the clan, just like your father was. Only this time, you couldn't come crying back."

"I know."

"Knowing that, you'd still choose him?"

Mai paused for a half a moment longer then said, "Yes."

Koinosuke had heard enough. He stormed from the room.

…

Hanzo sat up when Mai entered his room carrying a tray laden with a pot of hot tea and two cups. The old ninja master had been feeling a little under the weather of late and the wet winter chill just seemed to intensify his symptoms and make what would normally have been a minor annoyance for him a possible health risk considering his age.

"Shitsure shimasu." The kunoichi muttered when she entered. She sat down next to her grandfather's futon and poured a cup of tea for each of them.

"Domo, Mai-chan." Hanzo said, accepting the cup she offered him. "This was most thoughtful of you." He sipped the steaming hot liquid and relished the felling as it slipped down his soar throat.

Mai sipped her tea daintily before welling-up the courage to say, "Actually, Ojisama, I have an ulterior motive, its not really all that thoughtful of me."

"Oh?"

Mai placed her half-full teacup back on the tray and took a deep breath before saying, "I'm not going to marry Koinosuke."

Hanzo regarded her for a long moment, taking note of the deadpan tone she had used, her rigid posture and expression of firm resolve. "I trust you have not come to this decision lightly? You've never wanted to marry Koinosuke. How can I trust this decision of yours?"

She took another sip of her tea to wet her suddenly dry mouth before pleading her case. "There's more to being a good ninja than bloodlines and heredity." She began, quoting Andy's words verbatim. "The family wants me to marry Koinosuke because that don't think I'd be a capable leader because of my mixed pedigree. Koi-tan, to them is the ideal 'prince' to succeed after you because he's got the right breeding. But they're wrong. Blood has nothing to do with being a good ninja, or a good leader or even a good person for that matter. My marriage to Koinosuke would not benefit the clan in any way and it would only succeed in making me utterly miserable."

Mai paused to see what kind of effect her words so far might have had on her grandfather.

"And is this all you have to say on the matter?" He asked, one eyebrow raised.

"No." She replied without missing a beat. "That is merely my first point. Secondly, I'd like to remind you that marriage is a partnership entered into by two equal and consenting parties. The operative word here is 'equal'. Koinosuke and I are not equals. The family might think him superior to me but I can tell you that I would make a far better leader apart from him than I would with him. He would be dead weight that's I'd have to drag to the top with me. His opinions and decisions are molded by Uncle Nagare and he rarely thinks for himself. He cannot stand on his own two feet."

She paused again, having made her second point and waited for any comment from her grandfather. The old ninja motioned for her to continue and so she did.

"Finally, I feel the need to remind you –'you' meaning the clan, not you personally- that it is my own life and I should be free to live it my own way. If the clan doesn't want me to lead after you because of it then that's fine, I'll abdicate. But I will not marry Koinosuke. I refuse."

Having made her case, Mai relaxed a little bit and drained the last of her tea. She refilled her empty cup and toped off her grandfather's.

"Are you finished?" Hanzo smiled.

She gave a nod.

"Well, Mai-chan, you have made your case and I agree with you. But then again, I've never fully approved of the idea of you marrying Koinosuke in the first place. I'm afraid you'll find it much more difficult to convince the rest of the clan."

Mai already knew this.

"You say you'll abdicate if they refuse to accept you as the next Head of the Clan. Who would you choose to take over?" Hanzo examined her face, gauging her thoughts. "Who do you think is responsible enough and can remain impartial enough to be a fair yet strong leader?"

Mai was silent for a long while. She knew that the clans fist to choices would be either Koinosuke or his mother Shizune, but they were to easily manipulated and to self-centered (respectively) to make good clan heads. Her first choice was actually her father, after all, he was originally supposed to be Hanzo's heir. But Kazutaka had been officially disowned by the clan. He might live with Hanzo and attend clan functions, but they no longer considered him to be 'one of them'. Mai continued to run through the list in her head, 'To old… to young… to bias… to inexperienced…'

Finally, she reached the last possible candidate. "There is one person I think would be an excellent leader." She said. "But the clan is less likely to accept him than they are me, and… and he doesn't want it either."

A sardonic smile creped across Hazo's aged features. "There is that old saying, 'Power is best suited to those whom don't want it'."

…

Andy wanted power. That was an overly simplified summary of his wants and desires. 'Power' was an ambiguous term. He wanted the strength and the skills to avenge his father's murder. He wanted the power body, power of mind, power of will. He wanted the type of power that would give him the strength of character to kill.

That was the power Andy Bogard desired.

And to attain that power he trained. He trained his body with an intense physical regime, he trained his mind with deep meditation, and he trained his will with both. Andy put all of his time and effort, ney, all of his being into his single goal: to attain the power he desired, the power to avenge his father's murder.

And not once did any thought of Mai enter his mind. Not once, but…


	21. Fight Night

Andy wanted power. That was an overly simplified summary of his wants and desires. 'Power' was an ambiguous term. He wanted the strength and the skills to avenge his father's murder. He wanted the power body, power of mind, power of will. He wanted the type of power that would give him the strength of character to kill.

That was the power Andy Bogard desired.

And to attain that power he trained. He trained his body with an intense physical regime, he trained his mind with deep meditation, and he trained his will with both. Andy put all of his time and effort, ney, all of his being into his single goal: to attain the power he desired, the power to avenge his father's murder.

And not once did any thought of Mai enter his mind. Not once, but…

Not once but many, many times had thoughts of Mai invaded his mind and interrupted his training. At random moments the image of Mai's bare breasts would rise to the surface of his thoughts unbidden. The sound of her soft voice would ring in his ears as if she had just whispered to him… 'Make love to me…'

It was maddening!

Some times, late in the evenings when all the lights had been put out and he lay on his futon surrounded by darkness and silence he would ask himself why he had rejected her offer. She was very attractive and the idea of enjoying the delights of her most exquisite body was very appealing to him. He mentally kicked himself for not jumping on her when he'd had the chance.

But then that annoying little voice in his head reminded him that that wasn't morally right and that Jeff would have been disappointed in him. It reminded him that you should only make love to the person you were in love with and he, as someone whom had sworn never to fall in love, had no right.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

And besides, given their situations, it was just a plain bad idea. Mai was going to become the next head of the Shiranui clan, well… co-head of the Shiranui clan, and he was just a lowly foundling with no real standing or connecting, no real worth in the eyes of the clan. They would never condone a relationship between the two of them and Andy didn't think his conscience would let him have sex without a relationship.

And then there was the business of her fiancé to consider. Mai was engaged to Koinosuke and while she didn't like him in any romantic sense, he certainly liked her. Andy seriously doubted the other future co-Leader of the Shiranui clan would take kindly to an affair between his soon to be wife and a lowly hakujin, Hanzo's "pet project".

Andy rolled over onto his side and glared through the darkness at the shoji screens. Outside a fierce winter wind blew and rattled the shingles of the roof. It was cold and he once again remembered the image of Mai's alluring body in the warm and steaming bathhouse. He imagined the alluring curve of her hips as they had seemed to sway beneath the clean and clear bath water, the way her dark reddish-brown hair had floated about her shoulders, she had looked like a bewitching siren. He thought how warm it would be if she were with him now, beneath the blankets, sharing body heat... In that moment he wanted her.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt…'

But then that little annoying voice reared up again and reminded him that she was already promised to another man and it just wasn't right. Damn, he hated his morals at that moment.

Andy rolled back over and peered at the ceiling. He needed a change of scenery. Maybe after New Years Jubei-sensei would let him go back to Tokyo and participate in another one of the underground fighting rings.

…

Tokyo in winter reminded him a bit more of South Town than Andy was comfortable with. The streets were plowed clear of snow, but where it collected in the gutters was slushy and dirty and reflect more of a ruddy brownish-yellow than the pure white he'd gotten used to in the mountains.

The blond hitched up his jacket's collar to better ward off the evening chill and turned down a dark ally way. He had been pleased when Jubei-sensei had said that he was old enough and responsible enough to go to Tokyo alone this time. The teen had swelled with pride and thanked his master earnestly for the complement and the vote of confidence. Now, however, Andy realized that he hadn't actually been on his own in a big city since before he and Terry had been adopted and he wondered if he still had the "street smarts" he'd learned back then or if he'd been softened by his time living in the Shiranui and Yamada dojos.

The ally he now walked down was not unlike the one that had lead to the back entrance of the abandoned warehouse he and Terry had squatted in back then. The pavement was cracked and broken; the air was still and stank of garbage and human waste. It was almost like returning home and Andy was revolted by the idea of a place like this being any sort of "home". He wondered how he and Terry had ever managed to live like this back then. He had gotten used to life style he'd been living in recently. Perhaps he had gotten soft, but he never wanted to go back to the streets again.

A shady looking man sat on a stool in front of a shady looking door smoking a cigarette that smelled like there was more in it than just tobacco and nicotine.

"Whad'ya want?" He asked upon Andy's approach.

The blond ninja muttered a password to him and grumbling the man got up off his seat and allowed Andy to pass through the door. Inside was much nicer than its exterior surrounding would have made you think. The floor and walls were clean, though they did still show signs of disrepair and neglect, but the hallway he found himself in was well lit.

Andy followed the hall until it opened up into a large converted warehouse. Where once there had been industrial shelves to stack and store consumer goods there was now only a cage, a cage big enough to hold two people with enough room to maneuver. It stood in the center of the room, empty. A wide circle had been painted around it in red that Andy hadn't seen on his first visit. He assumed it was supposed to show the crowds how far from the cage they were supposed to stand. But at the moment there was no crowd. The warehouse was empty except for Andy himself and Mr. Six whom sat at a desk in the far corner flanked by Kitten and Kitty.

It was to this desk that Andy now walked.

Mr. Six looked up from his books and ledgers when he heard the boy's approach, he leaned back in his chair as if trying to remember where he'd seen him before.

"Ah, Demon's boy… White Wolf." He said when comprehension dawned on him. "What brings you here?"

"When are you hosting the next fight?" Andy asked eagerly without pause. It was the whole reason he'd come to Tokyo after all.

"Well, you're an eager little pup, ain't ya." He smiled sardonically. "Next fight's midnight, entry fee is ninety thousand. Same as last time."

Andy smiled craftily. Jubei-sensei had sent him with well over ninety thousand yen for his entry fee and expenses. (Once again the teen did not ask from where it had come.) But he figured he might as well try and wring a discount of some sort out of the guy. Jubei-sensei wasn't made of money after all.

"Don't I get a discount for being a returning fighter?" He asked. "I'm sure you don't get many regulars."

"Kid, you'd be surprised." Mr. Six returned his smile with a toothy grin of his own. "And ninety thousand is your discount, for being recommended by Demon a seasoned and respected regular. The normal entry fee is one hundred thousand."

Andy would have haggled a bit longer but didn't know with what to argue further. So, he grumbled softly and withdrew a roll of cash from his pocket. He counted out ninety thousand and handed the stack of bills to the shady bookkeeper. When Mr. Six took the wad of cash Andy couldn't help but notice that the man's hand was bandaged.

"What happened?" He asked before thinking.

Mr. Six handed the money to Kitten before answering. "I fell off a ladder."

It was only then that the boy remembered that it had been hinted at that Six worked for some yakuza faction or another. It had been stupid of him to ask in the first place.

…

Kazutaka rapped lightly on the Yamada dojo's front door. He stood back patiently and smiled warmly when Jubei answered it.

"Ah, Kazu-kun, what brings you here?" The old master asked.

"My father wanted me to tell you that you need to get a phone." The paradoxical pacifist answered apologetically.

The aged judo master raised one quizzical eyebrow. "He made you come all that way up here to tell me that?"

"No." Kazutaka sighed. "That was just an additional message. He's feeling under the weather at the moment and can't come to see you, so he would like you to come over to the Shiranui house some time. Now is best since Andy's gone."

Jubei was about to ask 'Wait, how'd you know Andy wasn't here?' but had long since given up on asking things like that of Hanzo and the extended Shiranui clan. The closest thing to an answer that he ever got was 'Psh, ninja' spoken as if it should have been obvious and that the question was an idiotic one. Jubei decided that the Shiranui just had a super-secret-spy-network, like in the movies.

…

Andy had also hopped to be able to change his name this time; he had been getting very tired of 'White Wolf'. Wolves were Terry's thing, not his and he felt weird carrying the name of 'Wolf' when he felt that it not only didn't fit him but also belonged to another. However, after stupidly prying into what had happened to Six's finger he had pretty much destroyed his chance of asking the favor of a name change this time around.

Andy sighed as his eyes shifted from starring at his codename on the lists to take in the whole board, looking for familiar aliases. He noticed that Hurricane Upper, Joe, had been placed on the opposite side of the lists as he had. Andy allowed himself a gratifying smile; the best opponent was being saved for last. With Joe starting on the opposite side as he was they weren't going to meet and battle each other until the final round. The young ninja was looking forward to it.

The American-born ninja entered the cage with an air of self-assuredness and optimism. The last time he attended these fights his first opponent had been child's play to beat. His only real challenge came when he had gone up against Higashi Joe, whom went by the name of Hurricane Upper here. And Joe had even said that there wasn't much of a challenge in these underground-fighting rings for him, not until he'd gone up against Andy. These next few fights before the two warriors collided would be child's play.

The announcer introduced them to the crowd. As before, the spectators shouted and cheered for his opponent and booed and jeered for Andy. Whatever. He didn't care whether or not the booed him, he knew what he could do. Besides, they could boo 'White Wolf' all they wanted. As soon as Six would let him he intended to change his alias to 'Human Weapon' or something of the sort. It was just more him.

Andy won his first fight easily enough. He grinned wickedly up at the crowd when they booed his victory, as if daring them to continue. A few of the specters closest to the ring paused in their jeers at his gaze. He projected an air of deliberate purpose and intent. Those with the best views of the ring became unable to pass off his victories as mere flukes, luck or chance. He won because he had the skill to win. And soon those closest to the ring that had booed him at first began chanting his name upon the victory of his third fight that evening.

"White Wolf! White Wolf! White Wolf!"

After a few moments of it, however, he wished they'd go back to booing. The name of 'White Wolf' felt uncomfortable in his ears. It didn't feel like a name of his and he felt almost like he were accepting praise meant for another fighter.

And then it was time for the final match, his fight with Hurricane Upper.

…

"Oh, hey, you're back!" Hurricane Upper, Higashi Joe smiled as he and Andy took up positions on opposite sides of the cage. "I'm glad. I wanted a rematch to see which was us was really the stronger."

The Muay Thai fighter assumed his stance, an eager but playful smile on his face. He truly enjoyed fighting for fighting's own sake; Andy understood that feeling all to well. He gave a slight bow of respect to his opponent before sliding into his own stance.

"Kill!" The announcer shouted.

Andy jumped into the air the moment the word was out of the man's mouth. He came down with a kick to the Thai boxer's shoulder and then flipped backwards away from his opponent to avoid any instant retaliation.

Joe fell backwards against the cage wall and bounced off of it face first on to the floor. The Muay Thai boxer climbed back to his feet, a wicked grin of masochistic pleasure on his lips. Now it was his turn to rush forward with a faint. Joe rushed forward as if to land a kick to Andy's stomach but changed at the last minuet to land a punch on the side of the ninja's face.

"Hope your girlfriend doesn't get to mad at me, damaging your pretty face like that."

Now it was Andy's turn to grin masochistically. He spat a mouthful of blood and saliva out and answered, "I don't have a girlfriend."

"Really?" Hurricane Upper raised one skeptical eyebrow. "You're not gay, are you?"

Andy chose not to dignify that with a response. This was a fighting ring, there were supposed to be fighting, not gabbing over their love lives (or lack there of). The blond ninja dropped to a crouch and swung out with another kick to nock Joe's legs out from under him.

Joe stumbled backwards but didn't fall. He regained his balance and hopped over his crouching blond opponent, bracing himself against the cage wall the Muay Thai boxer landed one hard kick to Andy's back sending him face first to kiss the floor.

As Andy tasted rust he was once again glad that his tetanus shot was up-to-date but now he wondered if there was a vaccine for hepatitis and whether or not he should get one if he was going to continue coming to these fights. The blond ninja spat once again as he rose to his feet.

He slammed his elbow into Joe's chest, cracking a rib and pinning the Thai boxer to the cage wall. Joe gasped in mingled shock and pain. Andy released him and stepped back, playing the part of the sportsman, and let his opponent catch his breath.

Joe gasped a few times before glaring back at Andy and rushing him with one of his pyrkinetic attacks. The Muay Thai master's attack caught the ninja in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and singeing the front of his tunic. The white clad ninja coughed at bit and took a single deep breath to clear the smoke of his own burned shirt from his lungs.

He sprang backwards into a handstand intending to launch himself into a Ku Ha Dan but before he could the room exploded.

Not literally, of course. The huge double doors of the warehouse's loading dock burst open to reveal a line of Japan's finest law enforcement, each clad in kevlar and carrying riot shields. They were backlit by huge bright floodlights that were blinding to look at.

"Shit!" Joe swore and made a dash for the cage door, but the announcer had locked it when their fight had begun and they were veritably trapped. "Welp… looks like we'll be spending the night in the slammer. Hope you brought your toothbrush."

Andy imagined the disappointed expressions of his masters, Hanzo and Jubei, would have when they learned he'd been arrested. He did not much like the idea. The Shiranui clan would most likely use it as more fodder against him and this time around he would be kicked out of the clan for real. No doubt about that. And then, for some unknown reason, Mai's face popped into his head. If he were kicked out of the clan and possibly out of Japan he might never see her again. And that thought scared him for some reason.

He glanced at Joe fiddling this the door lock and decided that it was a wasted effort. He looked at the police apprehending the spectators as they intended to run. All the building's exits seemed to be block by cops. He looked up and saw a roof access panel; the police wouldn't have placed a team on the roof, would they?

It was worth taking a chance.

Andy drew out his ki and aimed a Hishouken at the bars and chain links of the cage. The metal groaned under the heat and pressure of the ninja's fighting spirit and after kick or two gave completely. Andy managed to bend a hole wide enough for himself and possibly his opponent to fit through.

"Joe!" Andy shouted, forgetting for the moment their aliases.

The kick boxer looked up from the lock on the cage door and saw the hole his opponent had created. Andy dashed out ahead of him and climbed to the top of the cage. Joe wriggled out of the hole after him and was about the make a break for the nearest door when Andy shouted at him.

"No! Up here." He offered his hand to help the Muay Thai master up and then pointed to the roof access panel above them. "There."

"Got it." Joe nodded. He gathered his ki and sent one of his mini-tornado like attacks at the panel. It didn't give. "Damn, must be locked."

Andy's eyes narrowed, scanning the edges of the panel for a lock or hinges.

"Hey, Wolf, they're almost done with the crowd." Joe said at his side. "Did you have a plan B?"

Andy sent two other small Hishouken at one side of the panel to blow out the hinges. "Now! Blow it open now!"

Joe threw another Screw Upper at the panel and this time it blew open.

"Here." Andy cupped his hands and knelt on one knee to give Joe a boost up. The Muay Thai boxer pulled himself up through the square shaped roof access and peered back down at his accomplice. "Back up." Andy shouted.

The blond ninja put all his strength into one jump and just barely managed to reach the roof access. He hung onto to access ledge and tried to pull himself out. Joe grabbed Andy by the wrist and helped pull him the rest of the way out. The two stood on the roof and glanced around them.

"What now?" The Muay Thai master asked. "I know they saw us climb up here. They're gonna be searching the roof once they finish with everyone down there."

"Then we get off the roof." Andy answered as if this were obvious. He glanced around them; examining the rest of the buildings that surrounded the one they were currently one. The building that formed the other side of the ally he had come threw was closest to the one they now stood on and it was to this building that Andy now jumped to. He turned back to Joe after he landed. "This way."

The two of them made their get away like that. Keeping to the rooftops and slinking into shadows whenever they saw someone below or a helicopter passed over. It wasn't until they were several blocks away that they finally descended from the buildings, dropping as stealthily as they could into yet another dark alley between a porn store and a liquor store in one of Tokyo's red-light districts.

The two men leaned back against the liquor store's brick to catch their breath.

"Damn it!" Joe gasped. "That's ninety thou I'm never gonna get back."

"You're worried about money at a time like this?" Andy panted. "Shouldn't you be asking whether or not we lost them?"

"Did we?"

"I think so."

"Okay then. That's ninety thousand I'm never getting back." Joe sank to sit on dirty ground.

"Oh, for the love of…" Andy likewise sat.

They were silent for a long while, their heavy breathing the only sound in the dark and filthy ally while the lights and sounds of the red-light district twinkled and played just beyond the corridor.

"I'm thirsty." Andy announced.

"I got some whiskey back at my place." His companion offered.

"I don't drink alcohol."

"That's because you're lame." Joe stood and offered Andy a hand up. "C'mon, I got water at my place too."

Andy accepted the offered hand and stood.

…

The term 'flat' invoked the image of a spacious ground-floor apartment in Soho, England. It did not invoke the image of a small one-room apartment with a matchbox size bathroom and itsy-bitsy kitchenette, however, that was exactly what Joe's flat turned out to be.

Joe's flat was a one room apartment, not one bedroom, one room. It was a glorified closet with attached bathroom and kitchen. A wide window that offered a stunning view of the city lights, the flat's one redeeming feature, took up one whole wall. The room was furnished with a couch that took up a great deal of space, a small coffee table and a television. In the corner, off to one side was a raised platform with a narrow ladder leading up to it. This, Andy assumed, was the bed as there was a blanket hanging half off it. The entire place was scattered with discarded clothing, newspapers, magazines, beer cans and food garbage. It made Andy's stomach churn.

"Ah, home sweet home." Joe breathed in deeply. He walked over to his kitchen sink and rinsed out two glasses. "Sure all you want is water?"

"Yes." Andy replied as he began rearranging debris on the couch to clear a space for himself. He stacked the discarded papers and magazines neatly on the coffee table in front of him (or rather, as neatly as he could) and sat down, once again wondering about a hepatitis vaccine.

Joe came over carrying a tray laden with to glasses, a bottle of whisky and a bowl of chips. Andy was a bit surprised to see the chips in an actual bowl, after seeing the disarray of the apartment he would have expected to be eating them strait out of the bag.

Joe knocked the neatly stacked papers that Andy had just arranged off the coffee table to make room for the tray and sat down on the other side of the couch right on a pile of his dirty laundry.

"So," he offered Andy his glass of water, "that was a neat trick with the roof back there. I wouldn't have thought of it."

"It seemed like the best option." The blond replied and sniffed his glass covertly to see if the water was really drinkable. He decided that if he could drink the wild spring water on Hagi he could handle Tokyo city's tap water from a questionably clean glass. "A ninja is supposed to be able to think creatively."

"Aw crap, I was rescued by an animeshon-otaku." The Muay Thai boxer groaned.

"What?" Andy sputtered. He'd never watched a single episode of a single anime in his life. Some of the other guys back in school would bring a manga or two to class with them but he never read any. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on! 'A ninja is supposed to think creatively'. Which Saturday morning anime did you get that from? Was it Samurai Troopers? It was Samurai Troopers, wasn't it."

"What's a 'samurai trooper'?"

"Whatever." Joe shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. "You're a good fighter so I guess I'll let you call yourself a ninja if you want. But just so you know, ninja clans are pretty closed off to outsides, especially foreigners. Pretty much the only way to become a ninja is to be born into a ninja clan. I suppose they might try and train you a little bit if you marry into one, but really you gotta train from like the age of two to be a ninja."

"Nine." The blond pseudo-ninja muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Andy took another sip of water. "What about you? You're Japanese but practice a martial art from Thailand. What's your story?"

"Oh, well I spent allot of time in Thailand as a kid. My dad was a big Muay Thai champion back in his day, so I guess I'm kinda following in his footsteps."

"Hm." Andy felt a light pang of jealousy at Joe's short narrative. He wasn't sure if he would have followed him Jeff's footsteps of not but unlike the Muay Thai boxer, he didn't have the option to.

"So, anyway, where're you staying tonight?"

"Well, I hadn't really thought about that." Andy admitted. "I got a little money left on me. Maybe I'll find a hotel somewhere, or something…"

"You could stay here, if you want." Joe offered.

Andy looked around and wondered how he could politely refuse. "You sure you wouldn't mind. This is a pretty small place ya got here."

"Nah, its fine. The couch unfolds into a bed. Besides, it's the least I can do for you after you got me out of there."

Damn. If Andy refused his offer now it wouldn't be just rood but insulting to boot. Andy supposed he could spend one night in this sty, if for no other reason that so that the kick-boxer didn't feel indebted to him. "In that case, thank you for your hospitality."

"Damn, you're a polite little bastard."

Andy just shrugged. "It how I was taught. By the way, what do you think that was about back there? The raid, I mean."

Now it was Joe's turn to shrug. "It happens from time to time. Might be there was a fed. mole in the tournament, or a rival gang turned them in for profit, Hell, might even have been one of their own guys lookin' to cash in. S'not really worth lousin' sleep over."

"I… see…" Andy stood to refill his water glass. "So then there'll still be underground fights."

"Oh, yeah, they'll be in a different place, maybe hosted by a different group, but there'll always be fights." Joe nodded. "Which is good for us, we still need to finish our rematch." He smiled broadly.


	22. Special Brownies

Joe woke that morning to the sounds of dishes clinking in the kitchen. He lay in bed for a moment wondering just how much whisky he'd drunk last night and if he were still dreaming of breakfast making itself. Then he remembered that he'd let his friend from the fight-ring spend the night. It was probably Andy Bogard he heard now. The Muay Thai master rolled over in bed and promptly fell back asleep.

He awoke again a little less than an hour latter and this time decided to actually get up and out of bed.

Higashi flopped down from his loft-like bed, ignoring the latter that had been put there for that very purpose, and landed in a hap-hazard heap on the floor. He climbed groggily to his feet and looked around his apartment. It looked strikingly different than it had the previous night. The carpet had been swept clear of the usual debits, the magazines and newspapers that had littered the floor had been neatly stacked into two neat piles on the coffee table, the garbage had been thrown in the garbage, the cans and bottles having been tossed into a plastic bag labeled "Recycle" in bold katakana characters and his laundry had seemed to have disappeared.

"You clean up in here?" Joe asked, not quite sure what to think.

"Just a bit." His blond acquaintance answered from the tiny kitchen. "I'm making breakfast too."

"Huh." The kick-boxer shrugged and walked into the bathroom to relieve himself.

His bathroom it seemed had also been tidied a bit and in the corner next to the shower was a wicker laundry hamper that he hadn't seen in a months. Upon a closer inspection he found his missing laundry from the main room had been put inside it.

"You're not a neat-freak, are you?" Joe asked after washing his hands and re-entering the main room and sitting at the bar that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. He noticed that Andy had also washed all his dirty dishes from the previous few days and put them all away, save for the ones that he was currently using.

"No." The blond fighter replied as he set two place settings with forks on the right, knives on the left, and glasses at 2:00. No, not a neat-freak at all… He turned to fill their plates with whatever he'd made for their breakfast and Joe found himself wondering what he'd had in his 'fridge and pantry to make a meal with. "You didn't have any rice." Andy explained. "So I tried using spaghetti instead. Not sure how it'll taste, we'll just have to see."

He laid out the two plates and sat down on the opposite side of the kitchen bar.

Joe would never have thought of mixing natto with spaghetti before. He'd never heard of anyone ever doing it before, not that he was really into cooking or anything, but when he thought about it, it did seem like a clever idea. After all, noodles were to Italy what rice was to all of Asia. Didn't Italy even get noodles from Asia in the first place? The kick-boxer took an experimental bit of the curious concoction.

"Oh, god!" He exclaimed.

While at the same time Andy said, "Oh, wow."

"This is awful!"

"This is great!"

Joe looked at his newfound friend in something akin to disbelief.

"I wasn't sure how this was gonna taste, but this is better than I expected!" He was saying. "I think I like this better than the standard rice and natto."

"You're gross." The Muay Thai master said. It was really all he could think of. No person in their right mind could possibly like this. The combination of western spaghetti noodles and fermented soybeans just did not go together.

"You don't like it?" Andy looked insulted.

Joe suddenly realized that he'd been rude to his guest and offered, "You wanna have my half? I'll make something else."

"Uh, sure." Andy let the kick-boxer tip the contents on his own plate onto his. "Sorry about that."

…

Jubei climbed the steps to his dojo home that morning still reeling from yesterday's conversation with Hanzo. Of all the things his old friend might have wanted to discuss, he never would have thought it'd be making Andy a Genin.

Kazutaka had shown him into Hanzo's room. His long time friend had seemed frail sitting up in bed, an extra blanket thrown over his legs and a heavy haori draped from his shoulders. He had been holding a mug of steaming hot broth in his hands, his eyes closed and Jubei was suddenly reminded of just how old they were.

"Hanzo-kun." The old judo master ventured.

The ninja's eyelids had parted and he turned to face his friend. "Ah, Jubei-kun, thank you for coming on such short notice." He then turned his attention to the other man in the room. "Kazu, where is Mai?"

"Out." He replied. "Shopping or something."

"Good. She is not to know of any of this until we have decided."

Jubei had blinked at that. Decided on what exactly?

Kazutaka had shut the screen behind them and took up a position to the left and slightly behind his father, the position of a subordinate or attendant of sorts and Jubei suddenly got the distinct impression of a conspiracy being formed.

Hanzo had locked eyes with the old judo master and said flatly and bluntly, "I wish to make Andy a Genin."

At first he had thought that he'd misheard or misunderstood what his friend had said. The Genin were like ninja foot soldiers, when you heard stories of ninja assassins or saboteurs it was Genin performing said deeds. But the Genin did not work directly for the head of the clan, they reported to Chunin whom were responsible for the logistics of the missions. Jubei wasn't sure exactly which members of the Shiranui family were Chunin but he was sure that none of them were very likely to accept an outsider as one of their subordinates.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked in all seriousness.

"His experience as a Genin will harden him for his goal of revenge." Hanzo replied. "You and I both know that he's never killed before and when he and his brother finally go up against their father's murderer he should know what it is to take a life. He should not hesitate at the last moment because his hands have never been bloodied before."

Jubei thought about this. It was true that a last minuet hesitation on Andy's part might prove fatal for the boy. It could give his opponent the opportunity to turn the tide of the battle and Andy might possibly end up being killed himself, same as Jeff had.

"And how will you sell this idea to the clan?" He asked.

Hanzo smiled and sipped his broth. "I'll simply tell them that it's about time he started paying the family back for the time and resources we've put into him. I'm sure they'll love that."

Yes, the Shiranui family would like the idea of a warrior working for them and bringing in revenue without pay. Jubei assumed that Andy wouldn't be compensated for his efforts since he would be 'paying the family back'. He could name a few Shiranui that would just love it.

"And what manner of compensation would you give Andy for his efforts? I imagine he'll not be receiving the standard ten percent." But the moment this question was out of his mouth Jubei foresaw another possible reason for Hanzo's wanting Andy to work for the family. "What are you really planning?"

Hanzo smiled for the second time, this time cunningly and Jubei saw a hint of the demon that the Shiranui clan was said to have descended from in him. "To get the family more used to him, more… comfortable you might say. And, of course, to better familiarize Andy with the rest of the family and how we operate."

"And why would he be needing that?" The old judo master raised one skeptical eyebrow.

"That's for him to decide." Hanzo answered.

"Yare, yare…" Jubei shook his head. "You ninja are always so secretive, you can't even be strait with your friends. Alright, be cryptic and mysterious. What's all this got to do with me? Why'd you have to summon me here alone when Andy's away in Tokyo?"

"I do not want Andy to know of this until I'm sure he can handle it. You have been training him for several years now. Tell me: is he ready for the type of missions we'd be sending him on?"

The old judo master had paused to consider his young apprentice and his progress so far, how much he still had to learn, his ability to take orders and his general character and personality. The boy was willing to do just about anything if it would further his goal, he could take orders rather well, he was clever and adaptable. All these were good qualities for any ninja agent to have. However, he was also overly emotional and empathetic. An emotional outburst at the wrong moment could ruin a mission and cost him (and others if he were working with a team) their lives.

"Would any of your Chunin take him on as a subordinate?"

"Willingly, you mean? None." Hanzo said over the rim of his mug. Then over his shoulder, "Kazu?"

"I can think of one that wouldn't mind if I asked him nicely." Kazutaka smiled at some private joke that neither he nor Hanzo understood.

Jubei was now back home and still confused. What reason could Hanzo have for wanting to integrate Andy into the family? Wasn't the boy going to leave after his 10 years of training were up? Wasn't he going to return to South Town, America and be out of their lives forever? That had been the boy's plan. Now it seemed that Hanzo was making other plans for the boy.

"Sneaky ninja and their sneaky plans." He muttered aloud.

…

Andy arrived back at the dojo latter that same afternoon with a lighthearted smile on his face and a container of leftover spaghetti and natto in his bag.

"Tadaima!" He called and pulled off his shoes.

Jubei came to meet him in the entranceway. "And how was your trip?"

"Eventful." The blond ninja replied.

He then launched into his tale of narrowly escaping the police raid on the fight-ring and how he had helped his friend escape… he was like a child narrating his exploits to a beloved grandparent. Jubei had to smile at his pupil's cheerful energy. He rarely saw Andy this obviously happy. This Higashi Joe person must be a good friend indeed.

The old judo master tried some of the spaghetti and natto Andy offered him before politely forcing himself to swallow and saying, "All yours, puppy." He then placed the food container in the icebox and drank down a large glass of water. It seemed that Andy was the only one that actually liked the concoction.

"Sit down, puppy." Jubei ordered and the two sank to sit at the kitchen table. "I went to see Hanzo while you were gone."

"Oh, how is Hanzo-sensei?"

"He's laid-up with a cold." The old master answered absentmindedly. "Tell me, Andy, do you know what it is that ninja do?"

The boy paused, confused by his master's seemingly random question. He thought about it for a moment and then realized that a ninja's duties had never really been explained to him. He knew that they were great fighters but so were many other disciplines. Now that he was thinking about it, he never really heard any of the Shiranui talk of using their fighting skills outside of training.

"Well, I… Historically, they were spies." The teen finally answered a bit hesitantly, unsure if an answer of what ninja used to do would be acceptable.

"Yes…" Jubei nodded slowly. "They are spies, and also saboteurs and assassins."

Andy noted his master's use of the present tense 'are' instead of the past tense 'were' and wondered exactly what the old man was getting at.

"Andy," Jubei leaned over the table in all seriousness, "do you understand what it means to kill a man? You say you want to avenge your father's murder, you want to kill Geese, but do you really grasp what it is to kill a man?"

"I'm no stranger to death, Sensei." The boy replied a little defensively. "I've watched people die. Not just my father but street people too. Cops shot by gang-bangers and innocents caught in cross-fire, people knifed on the street for their wallet…"

"But you've never killed before." He locked eyes with the younger man. "You have never been the one to take a life."

Andy demurred under the intensity of his master's gaze. "No, Sensei, I've never killed before."

"I have." The old judo master said, an odd haunted quality to his voice. "Hanzo and I both have. In Manchuria… I've killed. It's not something to take lightly, boy. But it is something you'll have to get used to before you challenge Geese."

"I understand that." The boy nodded. He wasn't quite sure how to react to his master's haunted tone when he spoke of his time during the second World War but he did understand that the taking of a life was not something to be taken lightly. He understood that he'd need to get used to bloodying his hands before he could challenge his father's killer. "But how?"

"Hanzo wants to offer you a job."

…

Doctor Shiranui Hideki, affectionately referred to as 'Doc' by his family stepped into his office more than ready to end his shift. He paused however when he saw that there was someone sitting at his desk.

"Get outta my chair, Kazu."

"No." Kazutaka smiled playfully. He leaned back in the over-stuffed leather chair and stretched his feet out over the desk. Doc just sighed and hung up his immaculate white lab coat intent on ignoring his pacifistic and flippant cousin.

"I made you some brownies." Kazu reached into a plastic bag and pulled out a tupperware container of rich chocolaty fudge brownies. "They're special."

Doc turned and regarded his cousin for a moment. "What do you want?"

"Why do I need a reason to come and visit my favorite cousin at work and bring him delicious, chocolaty brownies laced with a special secret ingredient?" He opened the container and extended it to Doc. "Here, have one."

"You want me to write bogus prescriptions for you, don't you?" His cousin guessed, making no motion to take the offered desert item.

Kazu frowned. "What's with all the suspicion? I came here to do you a favor."

"Bringing me backed goods loaded with illegal substances while I'm at work is not a favor."

"That wasn't the favor." The paradoxical pacifist replaced the lid on the brownie container. "How'd you like another Genin on your team?"

Doc raised one skeptical eyebrow. "Who? There's no one yet old enough to start going out on assignments."

"Yeah there is." Kazu smiled.

Doc thought for a moment. "The hakujin?"

"Have a brownie."

"No. Why on earth would I want your father's eccentric hobby working on my team?"

"Because we're asking nicely? No? Alright then, how about because he'll be working for free so you get an extra member on your team but get to put his ten percent commission into your own pocket."

"I'm listening." Doc pulled out a chair and sat in front of his own desk.

"We want him to gain as much experience as an assassin as he can. So don't bother sending him on espionage or spy missions, he'd just be wasted."

"Assassin missions, I don't even like sending my experienced subordinates on those." Doc grimaced in distaste. "What makes you think I'll trust a foreigner with one? Has ever even killed before?"

Kazu remained silent.

"You want me to send a completely green kid out on assassin missions when he's never taken a life before and will most likely choke-up and get himself caught, putting not only himself but the rest of the Shiranui clan in jeopardy."

"Look, you can work him up to assassin missions if you want. Send him with another and have him just be back-up for a while."

Doc just shook his head. He wasn't going to take Andy Bogard on as a Genin.

"Alright, Doc, think of it this way: Imagine how awesome you'd look compared to the other Chunin when, with a Genin that everyone views as inferior, you get and succeed at all the difficult missions. You take a useless hakujin and make him an indispensable asset to the family."

Doc weighted his options. From what he'd seen of the boy in action he was a decent fighter. He had a naturally quiet disposition, which was always an asset in a ninja. In all honesty, aside from the fact that he was a foreigner, he would make an excellent ninja.

"I'm not gonna start him out on assassin missions." He said at length. "He'll be doing team operations until I decide he's ready."

"Fine." Kazu stood to leave. "That's all we ask."

"Oh, and Kazu…"

"Yeah?"

"Leave the brownies."

…

The scent of baking was the first thing Andy noticed when he entered the Shiranui main house. Warm chocolatey brownies baking. He absentmindedly wondered if it was Kazutaka or Mai in the kitchen, everything Mai had cooked for them during her week-long stay at the Yamada dojo had been so delicious, Andy was sure her pastries would be just as wonderful. He pushed that thought aside, however. The thought of Mai baking conjured up an image of her in her scant and revealing red gi with thick white cake batter spattered over her face and breasts.

The image made him blush and he forced it back down into his subconscious where it belonged. He had no business thinking of Mai like that. But then the memory of her nude body in the Yamada bathhouse rose to the forefront of his memory. And following close on its heals was the memory her just a few hours later in the privacy of her room.

'Make love to me…?'

He shook his head in an attempt to banish the amatory image from his mind.

"Something wrong?" Jubei asked as he laid his shoes neatly to the side of the entranceway where he could easily slip back into them on his way out.

"Just a slight headache from going from the cold outside to in here." He lied.

The old judo master smiled to himself, as if amused by some private joke but said nothing to the boy's obvious lie. He had a clear enough picture of the boy's character and understanding of his thought processes to make an educated guess about the nature of his thoughts. Andy's poor emotional control did, after all, make him easier to read than a children's alphabet book.

Jubei lead the youth to one of the house's washitsu rooms. Hanzo was waiting inside dressed in a neat tunic and hakama with a heavy haori draped over his shoulders. He looked paler than Andy remembered him, thinner too. Jubei-sensei said he'd had a cold; that was probably why he still looked peaky.

Doc sat to the left of Hanzo and slightly behind him leisurely sipping at a saucer of sake. The boy had to wonder what the family's doctor was doing here and quickly gave his old ninjutsu master a second examination. Thinner, pale and maybe a little shaky, the image of one who was just getting over a cold but wasn't completely well yet. He shouldn't need a doctor for that. Doc had to be here for some other reason.

Andy knelt on the floor and bowed low to his old master, touching his forehead to the clean white tatami mat that covered the floor.

"Ohisashiburi desu ne, Hanzo-sensei." He said stiffly. Something about this meeting seemed very stiff and stuffy, almost as if it were a formal meeting of some kind. Well, Jubei-sensei did say that Hanzo was going to give him a job. This must be the ninja equivalent of a job interview. He suddenly felt nervous.

"Andy, it has been to long." The aged ninja replied. "I trust you remember Hideki-kun." Hanzo indicated Doc.

Andy nodded. He remembered the Shiranui's family doctor; he just didn't know the man actually had a name. The boy had thought that Doc was just a third or fourth tier OC who wasn't even important enough to name let alone keep around and reuse.

"Hideki-senei." He bowed to Doc in polite acknowledgment, using the title on 'sensei' in reference to his status as a doctor and not implying that he was a teacher.

"Bogard-kun." Doc returned the bow with a conservative nod.

"Andy," Hanzo began, his tone was soft but it still managed to command attention, "how much did Jubei tell you before coming here?"

"He… well, he said you were going to offer me a job, sensei." The boy paused in his nervousness. "Because… because I need experience in killing before I can avenge my father."

Hanzo's expression remained neutral, impassive and unfeeling as he asked his next question. "And how do you think you can get such experience?"

Doc paused in mid-sip of his sake, eyes studying Andy intently. He was just as interested in the boy's answer as the head of the family was, possibly more so since the young hakujin was going to become one of his subordinates.

Andy fidgeted under their scrutiny. He wasn't exactly sure how to answer his old master's question. The obvious way of getting killing experience was to go around murdering people indiscriminately, but murder was a crime in just about every country in the world. He wouldn't get very far that way and he couldn't avenge his father from inside a prison cell. The boy bowed low a second time, once again touching his head to the tatami mats, more because he didn't want to face his master than out of any real humility or respect.

"I don't know, sensei." He said, head still down. "Jubei-sensei said that ninja are assassins, I… He also said you wanted to give me a job. I had assumed that you already had a solution to my problem in mind." He kept his head down even after he had finished speaking, unsure if he had said the right thing.

Doc, drained the remaining sake in his saucer before setting it aside and saying, "Well, he's not an idiot."

"True enough." Hanzo nodded. Had Andy been looking at that moment he would have seen his master a smile an odd smile, it was halfway between pleased and cunning. "He also managed to answer the question in a way that, while polite, turned it back on me."

Andy looked up at that, suddenly startled and hoping he hadn't just insulted his master. "Forgive me, sensei."

The old ninja almost laughed at the sheer panic on his young pupil's face, but he held it in. "Don't be, it was very clever of you."

"Uh, thank you, sensei." And he bowed again, still feeling stiff and nervous. Andy had no idea what he was doing or where this whole thing was going. There didn't seem to be any solid ground for him to stand on and he was terrified of taking a metaphorical misstep.

"Andy-kun, nothing would please me more than having you become one of my Genin and becoming adopted into the clan." Hanzo began. He was about to continue but Andy had stopped listening at the word 'adopted'.

"No!" He said with more feverent emotion than he had intended.

"Excuse me?" The old ninja was taken aback by the boy's sudden and passionate acclamation.

Andy realized his blunder only after the word had escaped his lips. He's master was offering him something that was meant to be taken as an honor and he was refusing it and refusing it with a passion. But he'd already been adopted once, by Jeff Bogard. He had taken Jeff's name, had truly become Jeff's son by spirit if not by blood. Andy couldn't imagine being adopted by anyone else or into any other family. Jeff had been his family, Jeff and Terry.

"Forgive me, sensei." He bowed low once again for what was probably the third or fourth time this meeting. "No, forgive me, Hanzo-dono, but I cannot be formally adopted into the clan. 'Bogard' is my name, it was my father's name and it is the name I intend to carry with me until the day I die. I cannot become a 'Shiranui'. I am sorry."

"Is that all you're worried about?" Doc asked with a laugh. "Boyo, no one gives a care about your name. Hanzo-dono is talking about adopting you into the clan not the family."

Andy blinked, he hadn't been aware there was a difference between 'clan' and 'family'. Everyone had seemed to use them interchangeably.

"An outsider cannot be privy to what you will need to know in order to serve on missions." Hanzo explained. "You need not betray Jeff's memory. However, once you become a member of the clan you will be one of us and you must remain loyal to the clan even if that requires you to betray old allegiances or personal morals."

That statement gave Andy another reason to pause. 'Old allegiances' and 'personal morals'…

"This means," Hanzo continued, "that if you are asked to sabotage a particular military base, steal information from a certain office, or kill a specific person you will do so regardless of what county they're from, what purpose they serve or who they are. Leave all your political views and convictions behind."

The boy swallowed. "Like… if I was ordered to kill the President…?" He asked, not really liking the idea of assassinating the head of his birth-nation's government. "Of the Prime Minister?" He added, using the more local example of the head of the Japanese government.

"Oh, we try not to take such high profile jobs like that." Doc waved off his concerns. "That's really more of a Kisaragi thing."

Andy bit his lower lip, not sure how he felt about this offer. "May I have some time to think about this?"

"Of course." Hanzo nodded. "This is not something one rushes into lightly. Once you're one of us you can never go back. Ninja is a life-long profession Andy. You cannot 'quit' whenever it suits you. The only ways out are retirement or death."

"Or disownment." Doc added absentmindedly. "Like Kazu, he got disowned."

Hanzo's eyes flashed at the good doctor with an emotion that Andy found unreadable. But the moment it was there it was gone again, his attention focusing back on the boy.

"Just remember," the old ninja spoke bluntly, "if you are to achieve your goal you will need a killer's experience and the only way you can get that without legal consequences are to accept the offer."

Andy noted his specification of legal consequences, meaning that the Shiranui clan would protect him from the law. However, nothing would protect him from the mental and emotional consequences of taking another human life. Andy had heard the far away tone in Jubei's voice when he spoke of the lives he'd taken in Manchuria, had seen the haunted look when he had warned Andy that the taking of a life was not something to be taken lightly.

But that was just general human life. Surely it wouldn't be so bad killing someone you knew to be evil, someone like Geese…

"How long do I have to consider the offer, sensei?"

"I usually give Genin as much time as they need. However, you do have a time constraint put on you and must consider that as well."

The nodded his understanding. He had to give Hanzo his answer with enough time left to actually perform the duties he would be agreeing to and learn from them before he left to avenge his father. "I will think carefully."

Thinking he was dismissed, the boy stood to leave but the moment he was on his feet and turning to leave his master spoke again, drawing his attention back.

"And, Andy, this is an offer I only ever make once." He said, tone grave. "If you decline you can never change your mind either."

"I understand, sensei." He nodded.


	23. Chapter 23

Koinosuke had intended to propose to Mai on the morning of her birthday. On the first morning of the new year. He had thought that she'd think it very romantic and all that fluffy-happy stuff girls were supposed to like. It would have been just a formality really, they were already engaged and so an actual proposal from him was not necessary. But he had wanted to ask anyway, because... because he actually liked her and while he was not comfortable with using the word 'love' (as most men his age were not) he was rather confident that he felt an emotion very similar to it. Their arranged marriage was for the clan and when, no now it was if, if Mai married him it would be for the clan and not for him. He had wanted to ask her to marry him for himself.

Their little disagreement had changed that, however.

Koinosuke didn't have to propose to her now, didn't have to ask her to mary him for him. Now he knew that if she married him it would be because it's what's best for the clan and not because it was anything close to what she wanted, or rather who she wanted. The ninja prince gritted his teeth as he remembered how she had gasped the other man's name in the throws of passion. Less of a name and more of a high raptured exclamation of pleasure. "Andy..."

Andy Bogard... that damnable hakujin had managed to seduce his fiance from him. Oh, how he wanted to see the man dead!

He could probably do it too. Pampered and spoiled as he was, Koinosuke was still a Shiranui ninja, trained in every art of ninjitsu. It wouldn't be all that difficult to sneak into the Yamada dojo, find the place where Bogard slept and slit his throat in the night. No, a kill like that would be to obvious. It would raise suspicion within the clan. Bogard may not be well liked within the clan but he was favored by Hanzo-dono. If he were to be murdered so openly and obviously people would interpret it as a challenge to their leader and Hanzo would respond accordingly.

Poison, perhaps? There were some toxins that converted into naturally occurring substances in the body after being metabolized so that they left no trace, thus murder could not be proven. He could poison Bogard to get him out of the way. But then that would rob him of the satisfaction of actually killing his rival himself. But what as a bit of personal gratification to the big picture? Once Bogard was out of the way Mai would be his once again.

She would grieve the loss of her little golden-haired lover and who would swoop in to comfort her in her time of emotional need but her fiancé. The man whom she was already going to marry. The man who would always be there for her when she needed him. A man whom the family approved of with the right pedigree, assets and social connections. The plan seemed so perfect that Koinosuke couldn't help but smile.

And then reality would set in.

Mai was so hot tempered and strong willed that any attempt to comfort her would only back fire. She'd see his condolences as an insult or at the very least patronizing. He had never liked the blond American and she knew it. And then there was the matter of actually killing Bogard. How was he to sneak in a poison the man? The two of them, Yamada-san and Bogard were almost always there, one of them would likely notice him before he'd have the chance to complete his mission and that would raise the question of why he was there in the first place. Everyone knew he had no great love for Andy Bogard, there was no reason for him, the 'Prince' of the clan to pay a visit to Hanzo's pet hakujin, the lowest of the low.

No, visions and schemes of murder and revenge were fun to indulge in every now and again, but when he really got down to it, they just weren't feasible. No, what he had to do right now was apologize to Mai for his reaction and explain his feelings on the matter. Communication was the best way of forming a healthy relationship after all. He did really like her and wasn't about to louse to a low-born foreigner, least not before he had a real chance to win his fair lady's affections. Once Mai saw how much he truly cared for her she would give up on that wretched hakujin and return to his open arms where she belonged. Confident that this was how things would go, Koinosuke knocked on the Shiranui main house's front door. "Ojama shimasu!"

...

Andy sat in the kitchen of the Shiranui main house staring at the ceiling light reflected in his tea cup. Behind him Kazutaka was busy packing a dozen chocolaty brownies for Doc to take back to his home with him. The two men seemed to be arguing about some inside joke that Andy was not privy too and so he did his best to ignore them. He had far more important things to consider anyway. Did he really want to become a member of the Shiranui clan officially? He needed the experience, of that much he was sure. But to commit his whole life to the service of the clan was another matter. How would his commitment to the clan effect his plans of revenge on Geese Howard? Hanzo-sensei knew that it was his whole purpose in learning kappojutsu and the Shiranui-ryu or ninjutsu, his master would surely grant him leave to preform the task.

His thoughts were interupted, however, by a nock at the door.

"Andy-kun, do you think you could get that?" Kazutaka asked from over his shoulder as he swatted one of Doc's creeping hands away from stealing a brownie.

The blond ninja-in-training obediently rose and walked the few steps from the kitchen to the entrance hall to see who would be calling on the Shiranui house unexpectedly.

"YOU!" The vehement snarl caught him off guard and Andy blinked in confusion before realizing that he stood face-to-face with a very pissed-off looking Koinosuke. "What are you doing here!"

"Hanzo-sensei wanted-" But the blond fighter never got to finish his explanation as the ninja prince suddenly launched himself at Andy with all the force and grace of an oncoming freight train.

"I kill you!"

Andy toppled backwards as an inexplicably enraged Koinosuke barreled into him. The blond fighter, acting on instinct, placed his knee in his attacker's stomach and used his own momentum to propel the furious ninja off of himself and over his head. Koinosuke somersaulted over the floor until he had spent enough momentum to reclaim a standing position. Andy likewise climbed back to his feet from where Koi had attempted to pin him to the floor.

"What are-" But once again Andy was cut off by a second attack from his opponent.

He turned a quarter turn to the side and threw up his fore arm to deflect a punch Koinosuke had aimed at his jaw. The ninja prince, behind Andy now grabbed him in a headlock hoping to strangle the air out of him. But the blond fighter kicked out the instep of his adversary's footing causing him to louse balance. He then propelled Koinosuke over his shoulder in a perfect strait line judo toss. Had Jubei-sensei been watching he would have been very proud. Still not daunted, Koinosuke rushed his rival again, this time going low, attacking the knees and shins -the foundations of his opponent's stance.

"What the hack is going on out here?"

Koi froze in mid-attack. Kazutaka and Doc had appeared in the entrance way being drawn by the sounds of a fight. They stood with their arms crossed over their chests appraising the scene before them.

"What's he doing here?" The ninja-prince snarled with all the self-rightious impudence he had in him. He thrust a finger at Andy and made a disgusted face as if the American-born ninja were something vile that shouldn't been seen in a respectable household.

"He was invited." Kazu clipped. "What are you doing here, Koinosuke-kun?"

Koi rose to his feet attempting to reclaim some of his lost dignity by being on eye level with Kazutaka when he said, "I was unaware that I needed a reason to visit my fiancee."

"Mai's not here right now." Kazu replied smoothly. "But I'll be sure to tell her that you stopped by when she gets back."

"Are you dismissing me?" Koinosuke sounded incensed. "You'll dismiss me, yet let him stay."

"Um..." Andy began, raising his hand slightly as if in a classroom. "May I ask why you're so mad at me? What have I done to you recently that makes you so angry that you'll attack on sight?"

"You!" Koinosuke whirled around and snarled at the blond ninja but paused when he saw the man's face. He was honestly and truly confused, Bogard didn't have the slightest inkling as to why Mai's fiancé would want to kill him. So then... so then he and Mai weren't lovers? "You..." He gritted his teeth and turned back to Kazutaka and tried best to moderate his tone into something resembling polite when he said. "I'd like to stay here and wait for Mai to get back, please."

"Fine." Kazu shrugged. "But take your shoes off. And while you wait, you can be the one to clean the mess you made of the entrance way."

...

Mai was surprised when she came home to find Koinosuke scrubbing dirty footprints off the polished wood of the entrance way. He looked up at her when she entered and smiled warmly, his face alight with affection.

"Hi, Mai."

"Uh... hello." She replied awkwardly and then focussed on taking off her shoes as an excuse to avoid looking at him. They hadn't exactly parted on the kindest of circumstances and she had no idea why he was here now beaming at her with warmth and admiration.

"I was hoping if we could talk." He blurted out in answer to her unasked question.

"About what?" She asked, placing her shoes in a cubby and gathering up her shopping bags. She brushed past him on her way down the hall.

"About us." Koinosuke abandoned his half-finished cleaning job and followed after her.

Mai wasn't really in the mood to talk to Koinosuke about anything, let alone their relationship but she let him follow her to her room where she set her shopping down anyway. She planted her feet and crossed her arms over her chest, lifting her chin slightly she indicated for him to speak.

"Will you marry me?" He blurted out.

Her expression clearly said, 'No.' But the words she spoke were, "Well, I kinda have to."

"I meant, would you marry me for me and not just the family?"

"No."

"Because of Bogard."

"Because you're an ass."

The ninja prince looked affronted. "I'm not!"

The kunoichi just shrugged. "You can't tell a drunk he's a drunk."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. I'm gonna go tell 'Touchan I'm home and see how Ojisama is doing." She brushed past him on her way out of the room.

"Are you going to see him too?"

"Who?" She paused and turned.

"Bogard."

"He's here?" Mai raised one skeptical eyebrow.

Koinosuke sputtered before composing himself and crossing his arms over his chest asked, "And if he is?"

"Then I suppose I'll have to say 'hi'."

Anger once again rose within the ninja-prince. "Ya know, it amazes me how a woman of your status and intelligence could fall for such a... for someone so utterly below yourself!"

"Then I guess you just don't know me that well." She left him.

...

The evening sun dipped low over the Higashiyama mountains, giving the snow covered peaks a vibrant gold halo and setting the clouds aflame. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight to behold, the type of sunset poets loved to sing about, or artists loved to dream about, or lovers loved to have as a backdrop for their rendezvous. It was a shame then, that this spectacular and majestic act of nature went completely unnoticed and unappreciated by the only occupant of the Shiranui house that was actually in a position to view it.

Andy Bogard, outside on the training field, stood with his hand's dangling at his sides and his feet parted slightly. To the untrained on-looker it wouldn't look much like anything, but to one trained in martial arts (such as anyone from the house that might look on him from a window) it was clear that he assumed the shizen no kamae, or the 'neutral posture'. It was the 'default' posture of ninjutsu from which a ninja could segue into any move or sequence of moves he so desired. Andy, however, remained motionless.

His mind swirled within a sea of thoughts, swept away by the roiling surf of the day's events and his master's generous but heavy offer. Intellectually he realized that accepting the offer was the best way to achieve his goal, his one purpose. However, something held him back. It was not Hanzo's warning that he would never be able to leave the clan again, no, that was something that he would have assumed and needn't have been said. Nor was it an issue of being asked to put aside his own views and opinions for the tasks he would be asked to perform. He held very few personal allegiances and really only one (possibly two) were strong enough for him to die for: his loyalty to his brother and maybe his affection for Jubei-sensei (though he was not as sure about the latter).

No, what made him take a step back and examine this offer… what made him hesitate on the decision was not the tasks he would perform or the threat of repercussions for defecting, no. What made him pause was the question of 'what next?' What would he do after his life mission of revenge was complete?

Before now he had always assumed one of two things would happen: he and Terry would go back to living together somewhere in South Town, if Master Tung were still alive maybe he would live with them as well, and the three of them might start a gym (though he would never teach the Shiranui-ryu there); the other option was seppuku, ritual suicide. His whole life's mission was to defeat and kill Geese, once that was achieved he wouldn't have any purpose to live for anymore; it only made sense to end his life then. But Hanzo's offer had put a new option on the table: return to Japan as a Shiranui ninja. Have a guaranteed job; a place to live and people whom would look out for him (if for no other reason than to cover their own asses).

This third option did sound very appealing. However, it did knock living with Terry off the table. Then again, after ten years of living apart would his brother still be the same person he remembered? Would he want to live with Andy? Not likely. And possibly. Giving over his life to the Shiranui clan did seem the more practical option, but there was another problem with it: Mai.

He had an ill feeling of foreboding that her clumsy attempt to seduce him at the Yamada dojo would not be her last. She was a very stubborn and headstrong woman whom was used to getting her way. If she wanted something she would not relent until she either got it or lost interest in it. If he gave over his life to the Shiranui clan, how long would he endure her advances before he gave in? He was, after all, only human and she was a very attractive woman. Mai was a dangerous problem for him.

Andy let out a heavy sigh, his breath transforming into a thick cloud of mist by winter's evening chill and he became aware of how cold he was. He turned back towards the house, intent on a warm mug of hot chocolate. It was late and evening was quickly turning to night, the young ninja-in-training supposed that he and Jubei would be spending the night and he looked forward to the prospect of sleeping in a house with central heating again.

He paused in mid-step.

Mai stood on the porch, leaning against one of the thick wood beams that supported the canopy. Her arms were crossed over her chest, pushing her breasts higher up on her chest. The last rays of the setting sun illuminated her hair making the red highlights of it look like polished copper.

"Hi." She said.

"Hi." He answered back feeling awkward. They had not spoken since her failed attempt to seduce him back at the Yamada dojo.

"Okay then." She turned to go back inside.

"Wait, what?" He followed after her. She had always been hard to understand; even when they were children he could never quite figure her out, but sometimes it felt like she was just plain trying to confuse him.

"I just wanted to tell you 'hi'." She explained in a bit of an irritated huff, as if he should have already known that, as if he should be able to read her mind and understand every thought as she had it. "So I've said 'hi' and now I'm done."

"You're so weird." Andy shook his head.

"And like you're not?" Mai shot back, a slight smile on her full red lips. "I'm sorry, did I just hear the kettle calling the pot?"

He gave a slight chuckle at her little joke.

"Face it, Andy, we're two of a kind, you and I."

"I suppose…" He wasn't really sure if he agreed or not, but it seemed better to concede the point rather than argue it. He was learning to pick his battles. Besides, there was another matter that was in greater need of discussion then what traits they might share in common. "Hey, Mai…" he began tentatively, "…back at the Yamada dojo, um, about…?"

"Oh that." She turned a bright shade of red that Andy found quite flattering on her and he once again silently asked himself why he had refused her offer. "Ojisama and 'Touchan are not to know about that, ever! Do you understand me?"

"Ah, I understand." His cheeks colored slightly. "But, uh, I actually wanted to talk about the little conversation we had after your, um… enticement. Have you thought about what I said?"

"Yes. I've already spoken to Ojisama about it."

"That's good." He nodded. "Uh, listen, about what else we talked about… when you, um, when you asked if I would marry you, how serious were you being?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how, um, committed to that were you? Would you ask me again once you've disentangled yourself from Koinosuke?"

"Why, Andy…" she batted her eyelashes playfully, "… are you asking me to marry you?"

"Not in the least." He replied with all the grave seriousness of an undertaker.

She looked disappointed but answered truthfully. "I might."

"And when I say 'no' again, would you continue to press the issue? Or would you let the matter drop and move on?"

She was silent a moment, contemplating her answer. This was the most important matter to Andy, whether or not she would accept his rejection and let him be or not. Her answer would determine for him what he would plan on doing with his life after Jeff was avenged.

"That would depend." She said at length.

"Depend on what?"

"On whether of not I believed you don't want to marry me at all or just need some time." She elaborated, her tone equally as serious as his own. "You've never liked it when people got to close to you. You pushed me away the first time I ever hugged you. You don't really consider yourself part of the family to spite the fact that you've lived with us since you were nine. You never made friends back in school. You just… its like you're scared of closeness or something."

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.' If only she knew how close to the mark she was hitting.

"So," Mai continued. "If I were to ask you to marry me and you said 'no', I might be lead to believe that it wasn't because you didn't actually want me, but rather because you're scared. But, if you said 'no' and I could be sure that it was a true no because it honestly would not be something you wished to do… then I would let you go."

"I see." That was all he needed to know.

"But," she added and he paused to hear whatever last bit she wanted to say. "It would be really nice if you did want to marry me. I plan to be the number one in Japan and it would be great if we could stand at the top together."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all that was written six years ago. From this point on, all new chapters will have been newly written. 
> 
> Please keep in mind that it has been several years since I began writing this story, and that it was written on a different computer. All my original notes and outlines are gone and so I'm literally working off just my memory of what my plan was, and the foreshadowing and clues I've left in the already posted chapters. As such, I can't guarantee the consistency of this fic. There are some sub-plots that I'm sure I'll have forgotten and will never get resolved. I will, however, try to finish the main sub-plots:
> 
> * Andy's assassin training  
> * Mai's unwanted engagement  
> * Both of their burgeoning feelings for each other
> 
> Thank you for reading up to this point and I hope to see you in future updates.


	24. Kotowari

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter of the new ones I'm writing in the hopes of actually finishing this fic. I hope my writing style hasn't changed to much -and if it has changed, then I hope its improved. 
> 
> Anyway, as I said in the previous A/N, the original 23 chapters were written on a different computer which I no longer have. All my old files are gone, that includes outlines, notes, and plans. In addition to that, its been several years, so I don't even really remember all that well where I was going with this. 
> 
> But I'm gonna do my best! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> -Renkon

The next day, Andy and Jubei prepared to leave for their return to the Yamada dojo. Hanzo did not ask about when Andy might make a decision, and Andy did not mention his master's offer. Koinosuke had also spent the night and -while no one explicitly said anything out loud- Andy got the distinct impression that the others wouldn't want the ninja prince knowing that they were considering having the American adopted into the clan. 

Truth be told, Andy didn't really know the other man that well. They were never really friends as children, and as adults they had exchanged words a grand total of once. Yesterday. When Andy answered the door and Koinosuke attacked him. So, maybe the blond ninja didn't have the right to judge. But he still got the distinct impression that anything said within the ninja prince's hearing would go straight to the ear of either his mother or grandfather. Not necessarily out of malice, but just because Koinosuke wouldn't see a reason to keep things from them. Hanzo's decision to induct Andy into the clan would not go over well with them, so the blond resolved to keep it quiet until he did come to a decision. 

As per usual, Jubei insisted they take the rush-hour train. Full of young, innocent, and distracted school aged girls for prey, and other people for cover. Andy was not in a mood to play babysitter for his master. After yesterday's conversation, he had to many heavy thoughts weighing on his mind. He grabbed Jubei's wrist before the older man could even begin to pick out a target, never mind feel one up. 

“Sensei,” he began softly, “as a favor to me, could you not today?”

The older man turned to glare at his student as if the boy had just insulted his ancestors. But seeing the tired and sober expression on Andy's face, Jubei relaxed. It had been a rather shocking couple of days for him. Being seduced by the exquisitely beautiful Shiranui Mai and having the steel and backbone to reject her, learning that it wasn't just sex she wanted from him but that she'd prefer him as a husband over her current fiance, and finally, being offered not only the opportunity to go on real ninja missions, but also to be adopted into the clan. Yes, it had definitely been a rather shocking week for the normally quiet and withdrawn fighter. 

Jubei patted him on the shoulder. “Chin up, puppy. When we get home I'm gonna make you a strong cup of tea.”

…

The 'strong cup of tea' turned out to be a normal cup of tea with a spike of brandy. Andy winced at the harsh flavor. He still wasn't used to drinking alcohol yet. 

“You'll acquire the taste eventually.” The old Judo master assured him, spiking a cup for himself before sitting down at the table across from his pupil. Sipping his tea slowly, Jubei regarded the younger man from over the rim of his cup. “You're going to accept Hanzo's offer.”

“What?” Andy blinked at him.

“Not today.” The older man conceded. “Maybe not even before New Years. But you will -and before you have to go back to South Town. You know yourself, Andy, and you know you need the experience being a Shiranui Genin will give you.”

Not knowing what to say to that, Andy just took another sip of his tea. Tasted more brandy than tea and set the cup back down. Paused. Thought. Then spoke. “Do you know what Hagi is, Sensei?”

Jubei snorted. “You mean Hanzo's own private island befitting a Bond-style villain? Yes, I've heard of it.”

Of course, Jubei and Hanzo had been best friends for longer than Andy had been alive. Even if the Judo master had never been there himself, he would know about it. Andy nodded. “Well, at Hagi they have this obstacle course where you're dumped on one end of the island and have to navigate to the other side. Anyway, there was this one time when I was running the Course, I was really hungry. Like, really, really hungry. I had caught a squirrel, this cute little adorable rat with a fluff-tail. I was gonna eat it. I had it in my hands-” he held up his hands one fist wrapped around the other to illustrator “-all I had to do was break its neck.” A pause. He lowered his hands. “But I couldn't. I couldn't even harm a squirrel.”

Sighing, Jubei nodded. The boy couldn't even bring himself to kill a vermin, yet he still somehow planned to kill a man. 

Andy understood and lowered his eyes. 

A silence settled over them so loud that they could hear the drip of condensation in the cooling tea kettle. 

Finally, Jubei stood. Poring his unfinished spiked tea in the basin, he turned back to Andy. “Change into your training dogi and throw on a jacket. I'm taking you hunting.”

…

Andy had been taught a little of tracking and stalking. Enough to be able to fend for himself in the wilderness or trail an enemy in a crowded city. But it was Jubei that did most of the actual hunting on this trip. The most Andy did was keep up and stay quiet. 

Finally, the old Judo master stopped them near a tree with a hallow at the base where there were clear signs of an animal living there. The snow was dirtier, having been stirred into the mud by tracks going both in and out, brown and black fur from when it's winter coat had come in and it shed its summer one. 

“I assume they taught you how to set a snare.” Jubei cast a sideways glance at his pupil. 

“H-hai, sensei.” Nodded the younger man, not really sure where his master was going with this. 

“Then please set one here.” He indicated in front of the hallow. “And when we catch something, we'll move onto the next part of the lesson.” 

Andy had a feeling of where this lesson was going and it did not make him feel very comfortable. But, as both Masters Jubei and Hanzo had said, if he was to defeat Geese and avenge his father's murder, then he would need experience killing. He couldn't just jump from having never harmed anything outside the training ring before to full blown murder instantly. He would have to work up to it. Best to start with small animals. 

Kneeling in front of the hollow at the base of the tree, Andy set the snare. 

Jubei nodded. “Now we wait.”

Andy was about to ask 'out here in the cold?' but thought better of it. Ninja were trained to tolerate all kind s of uncomfortable conditions while waiting for a target. It would have been a slap in the face to his training and disrespectful to everything Hanzo had done for him to ask to go back inside. Instead, they found a suitable tree to set up a makeshift hunters' blind in and waited. 

The sun was dipping low, the air getting ever colder when something finally did emerge from the hallow. A single black and brown raccoon, his thick winter coat making him look fat at first. But when he moved you could see where the skin hung from his frame from rapid weight loss. The winter had been much more lean for the animal than he'd anticipated. He sniffed the air, sensing that something was different outside his den, but not quite able to tell what. Putting his nose to the ground, the raccoon took three steps out of its lair-

-and was caught in Andy's snare. 

“Good job.” Jubei hopped down from their blind. 

Reluctantly, the younger man followed him. 

Seeing the two humans coming towards it, the raccoon panic. It struggled against the snare, and only succeeded in getting itself further entangled in Andy's trap. Jubei knelt down next to it. The raccoon proceeded to snap at him, hissing and growling warnings. Threatening bites and scratches if the human didn't leave him alone. All of these the old Judo master ignored. He grabbed the creature by the scruff of its neck, holding it still. 

“Alright, puppy.” He looked up at Andy. “Come here and break its neck.”

He knew the oder was coming, and yet the American-born ninja found himself exclaiming, “What!?” He paused. “But- -its a tanuki.”

“Its a vermin that lives on the mountain and you need to start getting used to the idea of killing things.” Jubei reminded him. “I promise you, real tanuki don't have any magical powers.” 

Still hesitant, Andy knelt down across from his master. He placed one hand on the animal's head and the other on its shoulder, holding each with a firm grip. One quick motion and he could wrench the raccoon's neck. Kill it instantly. A quick and relatively painless death. 

Sensing the imminent danger it was in, the animal struggled even harder. Pulling on the snare to the point of cutting into its skin. Blood dripped off of its dark fur onto the stirred-up and dirty snow. He was already thin from the winter and now this... Andy didn't wanna kick a creature when it was down. That was the sort of thing Geese would do. He didn't want to be like the man he was going to kill. 

With a sigh, Andy took his hand off the raccoon's shoulder and began untangling it from his snare. 

“Oi! What are you doing?” Demanded his master. 

“He's already weak and now injured, sensei.” The younger man informed him. “There's no honor in this kill.”

Jubei sputtered for a second before running a hand through his long white hair in sudden frustration with his student. “The point of the exercise wasn't to learn honor, it was to learn what its like to kill something. How do you expect to ever avenge your father's death if you have no stomach for killing!?”

Realizing that this second human was helping him and that the danger had momentarily passed, the raccoon stopped struggling enough for the younger human to finish unwrapping the string he'd been entangled within. 

Andy scooped the animal into his arms. “We'll take it back to the dojo with us. I'll treat its wounds and give it a proper meal, and when its a full strength, then I'll challenge it.”

“'Challenge it'?” Jubei echoed. “Its a raccoon, not a fighter. Its hobbies include stealing food and spreading disease.”

But the younger man wasn't listening. He had already made up his mind, and as Jubei had learned over their time living together, while Andy was respectful, he was also stubborn. Once he made up his mind about something then his mind was made up and there was no changing it. He would dig his heels in and oppose his master at every step. Jubei grit his teeth. 

“I'm not gonna be responsible for it.” He snarled. “That thing makes a mess you're cleaning it up!” 

“Of course, sensei.” Andy nodded. 

So it was decided, and there was nothing Jubei could do to change it. 

…

New Years finally arrived, and Mai came of age. 

She did not wake-up early to watch the first sunrise of the new year. She did, however, wake-up early to prepare herself for her rejection of the betrothal. 

Traditionally, yuino were big banquet affairs involving both the bride and groom's families, as well as a mediator. In this case, the bride and groom's families were the same family and they had no mediator. Instead of a traditional and decadent engagement ceremony, Koinosuke and Mai had agreed on a smaller, quiet, and intimate exchange of bridal gifts with just their immediate relatives. Mai and her father and grandfather, and Koinosuke and his mother and grandfather. That was decided long before Mai's failed attempt to seduce Andy and her decision to end the engagement entirely. 

Koinosuke looked still and tense in his elegantly embroidered haori over a formal kimono and hakama ensemble. Then again, he had been tense and uncomfortable around her ever since she slipped up and said the wrong name during their lovemaking. And she was about to hurt his feelings and embarrass him again, too. This time right in front of his overbearing mother and controlling grandfather. Poor guy. She almost felt sorry for him. She did feel sorry for him. 

Just not sorry enough to go back on her plans. 

She was not going to marry Koinosike. 

He presented her with an wooden box with a beautiful yosegi finish, lacquered to a shine. Mai didn't have to open it to know what was in it. Her first bridal gift. An obi meant to represent female virtue. She was expected to reciprocate with a new hakama for Koinosuke, to represent fidelity, and in fact, she had been sewing one for him right up to to moment she resolved to never, ever, marry him ever. Ever! If she was going to be marrying anyone, it would be Andy. Andy Bogard or no one. Mai wasn't really sure when she'd come to that particular decision, but that was the final decision she'd made. Andy or no one.

Bowing low in an apology, head nearly touching the tatami mat, Mai pushed the lovely yosegi box back to Koinosuke. 

“I'm sorry.” She said. And in all truthfulness, she was a little sorry. For doing this to Koinosuke in front of his family. “But this isn't going to happen.”

Nagare and Shiszune's outrage was immediate and vocal. 

“Unacceptable!” Shizune snarled. 

“This is just the sort of thing I'd expect from a konketsuji!” Nagare spat a slur in reference to Mai's mixed blood. 

That was when Kazutaka stood. “Oi! That was uncalled for!”

“You do not have the right to speak, traitor!” The older man growled at him, then turned his attention to Hanzo, whom had not moved. “Aniue, this is just the kind of disrespectful behavior we were afraid of. This is the reason your hafu granddaughter cannot inherit without a proper Shiranui husband.”

“Well, then its a good thing I'm not about to keel over any time soon, then. Isn't it.” Hanzo raised his eyes to his brother, a self-deprecating smile on his face. The illness he'd been fighting was mostly over now and the color was back in his cheeks. But he was still wearing thermal pajamas under his formal hakama and haori. The winter and the cold becoming just a little more difficult for him to weather than it used to be. He was no longer ill, but he was weaker. “I still plan to live a few years longer, Naga. Years enough for Mai-chan to find a husband the clan will find more desirable, or time enough to train a suitable heir.”

“Koinosuke is-!” Nagare began, but was cut off.

“Not suitable.” Hanzo informed him. “I will not name him my heir, and if you try and place him as head of this clan after my death, you might get a few to support his claim. But those left still loyal to me will rally around either Mai-chan or whomever my choice of heir ends up being. That will certainly tear the clan apart. And isn't that what you wanted to avoid in the first place?”

Nagare bit the inside of his cheek, not sure what to say next. 

“This marriage was the solution to that!” Shizune snapped. She placed what was supposed to look like a comforting and supportive hand on her son's shoulder. As if she were shielding her frail and delicate child from a broken heart. “If Mai-san weren't so selfish, she see the necessity.”

Kazutaka stepped in front of Mai, matching Shizune's snarl with one of his own. “Maybe if your son wasn't such a spineless weakling who only ever did what his mommy and granddaddy told him, he wouldn't need my daughter to hold his hand!”

Thus, the older members of the family, those whom were supposed to be mature, and composed degraded into bickering like children. 

Only Mai and Koinosuke remained seated, their knees folded politely under them. Mai looked up, chancing a glance at the man she had -up until recently- resigned herself to marry. She was expecting him to look anxious, sad, embarrassed, maybe even heart-broken. But when their eyes met, he just looked... tired. Koinosuke was tired of this shit. 

“I'm done.” He stood with a sigh. “You all can keep fighting if you want. I'm leaving.”

And he walked out.

Mai smiled, leaving was the best idea he ever had, and she followed his example. Also standing, she offered a polite bow to the bickering adults and likewise left. To say she wanted to be 'anywhere but here' would be disingenuous, because there was only one place Mai wanted to be.

…

The Yamada Dojo was a mess when Mai arrived, still wearing her formal kimono from the yuino, her hair twisted up into an elegant knot and held in place with an antique pin. She looked completely out of place when she slid open the door to find the place in shambles. Clutter was nothing new for Jubei -although with Andy there to clean for him, the clutter had gone down in recent years- but mess, mess was something the kunoichi was not used to seeing in the old Judo master's house. 

Tipped over sake bottles and spilled bowels of rice littered the floor as she stepped through the dining room. 

She heard a crash and the distinct sound of Jubei's voice growling a very colorful reprimand, followed by apologies from Andy and assurances that he'd take care of it. Mai followed the sounds of -she wouldn't call it a struggle, kurkuffle, maybe- to the kitchen. 

Sliding the door open, the first thing she saw was a broom in Andy's hands, the bristled pointed up. Following the angle of the handle, she saw a raccoon in an open pantry above the ice box. Fur all puffed out, hissing at the both of them. She she'd know how it had gotten into the house, but it was apparent that the animal was scared out of its mind. “Aw... poor thing...”

“M-Mai!” Andy exclaimed. So focused was he on getting the wild animal he'd brought into the house under control that he'd failed to sense her presence. His breath caught in his throat when he saw what she was wearing. Such elegant dress robes, her hair up in that cultured knot, just a slight bit of makeup to accentuate her already beautiful face. He would have forgotten all about the raccoon if she hadn't stepped in front of him, placing herself between andy and the animal. 

Dragging a crate of leeks over, Mai hiked up the hem of her robes so that she could climb on top of the ice box. Andy politely blushed and looked away when the creamy white and supple skin of her thighs was exposed. True, he'd already seen more. Much, much more. But that didn't change the fact that- But that didn't change anything!

Mai pulled a leek from the crate and offered it to the raccoon.

It glared at her suspiciously, then glanced back at the males in the room. Sniffed the leek tentatively. Then took it in his teeth and pulled it out of her hand. Mai watched the raccoon munch on the leek. When it was done, she pulled another one from the crate and offered it to the animal. She repeated this until it was calm enough for her to grab and pull down from the pantry. Holding it tight in her arms, Mai hopped down from the ice box. 

“Poor thing was just scared and hungry.” She announced. Then, speaking to the raccoon added, “I hope you're feeling better, Tanuki-san.”

“Oi!” Don't name it!” Jubei commanded. If she named it, it'd be harder for Andy to kill it. “Andy, do not let her name it!”

But Andy wasn't paying attention. In those extravagant robes, dressed like a princess, and now suddenly a friend to feral woodland creatures, she reminded him of some sort of fairy tale princess and the blond ninja found that he didn't quite understand how he was feeling about that. 

Mai, meanwhile, wasn't paying attention to either of them. Now that she had the raccoon in her arms, she was giving him a thorough examination. It didn't take her long to find the wounds under his fur where the string of Andy's snare had cut into his skin. “He's hurt!” She exclaimed. “Was he caught in a trap?”

“Technically.” Andy confirmed awkwardly. His cheeks felt hot for some reason and he really hoped it didn't look like he was blushing. He always colored so easily. 

“Well, we can't just throw him back out into the wild like this.” She asserted. “He could die, or get eaten by something bigger than him. I'll help you nurse him back to health.”

That announcement snapped Andy out of the half-daze he seemed to have fallen into. “You'll be staying here again? But you just left!”

Now it was her turn to feel awkward. She offered a self-deprecating smile and indicated the decadent formal kimono she was wearing. “I just came from my yuino.” She explained. “I told Uncle Nagare and Shizune that I will never marry Koinosuke. You can imagine how well that went. Touchan is probably still fighting with them right now. I think its best if I lay low for a couple days.”

And she had to lay low here!? 

Both Jubei and Andy stared. Out of all the places all over the islands she could go, and she chose to lay low here, with them. In an old hovel that hadn't been renovated since the invention of electricity, didn't have hot or cold running water, heating, lights, or a phone. The old Judo master cast a sideways glance at his pupil. There was no question in his mind as to why the Shiranui princess would want to stay at his humble dojo, and it had nothing to do with the crisp mountain air.

Jubei patted the younger man on the shoulder. Mai hadn't said exactly how long she'd be staying with them. He hoped the boy had a strong constitution. 

“Ya know what you should do...?” Asked the older man, picking up the discarded broom. 

“Take another trip to Tokyo?” The younger man guessed, hoping that was what his master was thinking too. If Mai was going to be at the Yamada dojo, then the Yamada dojo was exactly the place Andy did not want to be. 

Jubei smiled a cruel smile and passed the broom to his pupil. “No.”

Andy sighed. He did agree when he took in the raccoon, that if it made any messes, he would be responsible for cleaning them up. He took the broom. “Hai, sensei.”


	25. Round About

Kazutaka appeared the next morning with a small duffle bag for Mai. He offered no explanation for why it took him a whole day to bring a few basic necessities for his daughter's stay. But he was limping. Favoring his bad leg that had been injured during the course at Hagi all those years ago and leaning heavily on the cane Andy hadn't seen him use in a long time. 

Jubei looked him up and down. “I thought you didn't fight anymore, Kazu.”

The younger man just looked tired. But there was a fire and energy of passion in his voice when he said, “Nobody talks shit about my baby or her mother!”

“Mm.” Nodded the old Judo master as if understanding. Kazutaka was not a pacifist because he abhorred violence or disapproved of harming others. He was a pacifist out of respect for his late wife whom he loved dearly. She had been the one to abhor violence and disapprove of harming others. When she died, Kazu gave up Ninjutsu out of respect for her memory. But that didn't mean that he didn't still know how to fight and wasn't going to fight on behalf of his child. Jubei clapped him on the shoulder. “Come inside. You look like you could use a drink.”

Kazu followed the older man inside.

They found Mai in the kitchen with Andy -apparently having a disagreement of some kind. 

“For the last time, I have been cooking for Jubei-sensei for as long as I've been living here.” Andy was saying. “I know how to boil rice.”

Mai rolled her eyes at him and tried to push the blond man out of the way. “And I'm telling you, you might think you know how to cook, but last night the rice was soggy and now it looks like you're gonna burn it instead. Let me cook for you.”

“I don't need you to cook for me.” The blond argued back. 

Kazutaka noted that she was not wearing the formal kimono she had on when she left home the previous day. Instead, she was clad only in the tunic of a white dogi with red flames. Not one of Jubei's. The design was something meant to appeal to a younger man. Something of Andy's then. 

Making breakfast wearing only one of the young ninja's shirts. Kazu had to pause and also wonder how they worked out the sleeping arrangements in addition to the clothes lending arrangements. He didn't exactly disapprove of Andy for his little girl. And it wasn't like he held with outdated traditions that called for a suitor to ask for a father's permission before courting his daughter. But, still... it would have been nice if one or both have them had at least told him what was going on between them. 

But he chose not to comment on it. Instead, clearing his throat, Kazutaka drew their attention to him. “Or. You could let me do the cooking while you-” he pointed a fan at Mai “-put some cloths on.” He passed her the duffle. Then turned his fan to Andy, “-and you set an extra place at the table.”

“Hai, Touchan.” Mai took her duffle and obediently disappeared from the kitchen. 

“Hai, Kazutaka-sama.” Andy nodded and moved out of the way of the wood-burning stove to retrieve a fourth bowl, cup for tea, and chopstick rest. 

Jubei smiled in amusement and sat down at the table, folding his legs under him and enjoyed not having to do anything for one morning. “I don't think I've had this many people in my house -ever.”

Kazutaka wasn't paying attention to the older man. He was removing coals from the wood-burning stove. Mai was right. Andy had the fire to high and would have burned the rice if someone else hadn't taken over. Kazu had gotten rather good at cooking. Between being relived of his position as Hanzo's heir and becoming a single father, he certainly had plenty of time and opportunity to practice. 

Andy finished setting the extra place for Mai's father, then turned to the older man. “Is there anything I can help you with, Kazutaka-sama?”

“No. Just sit and stay out of the way.”

“I've always found it so funny that he's always called you '-sama'.” Jubei commented from his own place at the table. 

Andy flushed as he sat down at the table. He originally called Kazutaka '-sama' when he first arrived in Japan, didn't know the language yet, and didn't understand the culture very well. He was told that it was rude to address a person without an honorific but couldn't remember which honorifics were appropriate for what situations. When Andy first met Mai's father, he called the older man '-sama' because he didn't yet understand just how low his standing in the Shiranui clan was. By now, Andy had been using the honorific for so long, it felt strange to call Mai's father by any other honorific. 

“Oh, let him be.” Kazutaka waved off the comment. “If I hadn't been disowned, Chichi-ue would have abdicated already and I'd be head of the clan. Andy would be calling me Kazutaka-sama.”

“That's be something.” Jubei snorted. “An alternate reality where you're head of the Shiranui clan.”

“I think you'd be great at it, Kazutaka-sama.” Andy chimed in. He didn't know why, the older man always seemed to like the American-ninja, but for some reason he wanted to try extra hard to maintain the good opinion Mai's father had of him. 

“Listen to that, already trying to curry favor.” That snort turned into a proper laugh when Jubei said this. 

“What? I'm not-!” Andy insisted, suddenly thinking he'd said or done something wrong.

“Relax, puppy.” Kazutaka took the pot of rice off the stove and began portioning it out. 

That was when Mai rejoined them, wearing her standard red gi with white trim. The front unable to close all the way so that her more than generous breast was all but bursting from the fabric. Twin tassels in red and white hung down to her ankles in the back, the only thing covering her backside. When she moved it was clear for all to see that she wasn't wearing anything under there but a single strip of cloth tied into a fundoshi. 

Andy's tunic had covered much, much more than what she now wore. 

Andy tried his best not to notice these details. A feat that proved very difficult when she decided to sit down right across from him, offering a full and mostly unobstructed view of her breasts. He decided to find his bowl of plain rice very fascinating. 

A raccoon jumped up on the table next to Mai and sat down beside her bowl. It chittered expectantly, but did not take any food until she offered it with her sticks. 

“Such a polite and well behaved young man.” She cooed at the animal, scratching it behind the ears as it ate.

Understandably, seeing a wild animal at the breakfast table, eating his daughter's food, Kazutaka freaked out. He moved back from the table, into a half-kneeling position one could easily shoot up onto their feet from. One hand reaching into his sleeve for a fan. “What the hell is that?”

“Its a tanuki, Touchan.” Mai blinked wide innocent eyes at him. “Tanuki-san say hello to my father.”

The raccoon did glance at the new human, but seemed uninterested. Kazutaka was neither threatening him with a broom, nor was he giving him food. The raccoon had no time for him. 

“I wanted Andy to get rid of it.” Jubei explained honestly, although for Mai's sake he did not specify just how permanently he wanted the younger man to 'get rid of it'. “But then your daughter showed up with her bleeding heart and has decided to make the thing her pet.”

Kazutaka blinked. She managed to tame a wild raccoon in less than a day? But that was not really the thing to focus on. As a single parent, and Mai being his only child, all of Kazutaka's questions were more along the lines of, “Is it safe? Has the thing had any shots? What if it bit her? What if it has rabies? What about fleas, or lice? Is it clean?”

“Touchan, you worry to much.” The kunoichi scooped the raccoon off the table and set him in her lap, since his presence seemed to bother the men at the table so very much. The raccoon sat upright on her folded knees, its head framed perfectly between her breasts and Andy suddenly had an irrational hatred of the thing that felt suspiciously like jealousy. 

Kazutaka did not seem convinced by his daughter's laze-fair attitude. “I'm not sure I want you keeping a wild animal as a pet.” He turned to Jubei. “And you're allowing this? This is your house.”

“You try telling her 'no'.” The older man shot back. 

“I tell her 'no' all the time. I'm her father. Its kinda in the job description. Watch this.” He turned back to his daughter. “Mai-chan, you cannot keep a wild animal as a pet, and especially not in someone else's house. You have to release it back into the wild.”

“But, he's hurt.” Mai argued back. “He was caught in a trap yesterday and got all cut up. Can't we at least wait until he's better?”

Kazu shook his head. “No, kitten. If he was caught in a trap then he would have died anyway if you'd never happened by. That's nature. It sucks, and its sad. But that's the way it is.” For a second it looked like she was about to argue back, so he cut her off before a protest could begin. “If it will make you feel more comfortable, Andy can go with you to take him back up into the mountains.” 

Because, while he was a little annoyed with them for not telling him that they were having an affair, he didn't exactly disapprove of their relationship either, and he more than understood the reasons for their secrecy. They wouldn't pass up a chance to take a stroll through the woods together unchaperoned. Kazu was basically setting them up on a date. Maybe after they came back they'd realize that he was on their side and come clean with him. 

She looked across the table at the blond man.

He met her eyes and looked away. Speaking more to the paper screen than to her when he said, “They want me to make sure you actually let it go and don't try and sneak it back with you.”

“Well, there's that too.” Her father admitted. Mai could be a very sneaky child when she wanted to be. But then, most ninja children could be very sneaky when they wanted to. It was part of the lifestyle, ninja parents expected it. 

Mai looked around the table. Three of the four most important men in her life, and they all wanted her to release Tanuki-san back out into the wild. If she didn't, then she'd never get a moment's peace from any of them. Well... maybe from Andy since he was just naturally inclined to keep quiet anyway. But he would give her disapproving looks, and that was just as bad. So, with a sigh, the kunoichi gave in. “Alright. After breakfast, Andy and I will take him back into the woods.”

…

Watching Andy and Mai disappear into the trees, Kazutaka waited a full count of then after he lost sight of them to turn to Jubei and ask the question he'd been dying to ask since he first walked in and saw his daughter wearing Andy's shirt and bickering in the kitchen like an old married couple. 

“Why didn't you tell me or Chichi-ue that my daughter and Andy were lovers!?”

The old Judo master only blinked at him in confusion, not understanding the younger man's question. “Because they're not.”

He thought about elaborating to Kazutaka that it wasn't from lack of trying on Mai's part. That she had tried to seduce Andy and when that didn't work, offered herself to him plainly and bluntly so that there could be no misunderstanding of her intentions, and that he had rejected her both times. But Jubei thought better of it. Mai had never been a particularly shy child, but Kazutaka didn't need to know just how predatory his daughter could actually be. 

“Well, they sure act like it.” The younger man insisted. 

Jubei sighed and decided to give the younger man at least some explanation. “Its not from lack of wanting.” He said. “But Andy won't let himself look at a woman in that way until he's achieved his goal. He doesn't want the distraction. Mai understands this and respects it. She's waiting for him. His ten year deadline is almost up anyway. They're not lovers yet, Kazu. But after Andy comes back from avenging Jeff...” 

The older man only shrugged. Time would tell.

Kazutaka looked back to the spot in the trees where the pair had disappeared. “I wonder if Chichi-ue foresaw their relationship, and how it figures into his ridiculously circuitous plan for the clan.” 

“And what is Hanzo-kun's ridiculously circuitous plan?” Asked the Judo master. 

“I'm not entirely sure.” Kazu admitted. “Its circuitous.” 

“Hm.” Jubei groaned. Sneaky ninja and their sneaky plans.

…

Andy kept casting suspicious glances at Mai as they threaded their way between the trees in the general direction of where Andy and Jubei had first found the raccoon's den. 

“Andy, you're not subtle.” She told him, guessing at the reason why he kept looking at her. She moved the animal she was carrying to one arm to offer him a better view of her chest. “If you want to see them all you have to do is ask.”

Her guess was a wrong one. But now that the view of them wasn't obstructed anymore, his eyes did travel down of their own accord to drink in a quick vision of them before the American ninja blinked. His face flushed a bright shade of crimson as he shook his head. “No. I wasn't trying to-” A pause. A deep breath to calm his suddenly frayed nerves. Mai always managed to wind him up so tightly with such little effort. “I was actually wondering -now that you're not engaged to Koinosuke anymore- are you going to ask me again?”

She cast a sideways glance at him, fluttering her lashes. “Do you want me to ask you to marry me?” But before Andy had the chance to consider an answer, Mai shook her head and continued. Not giving him the chance to speak. Her question was rhetorical. “Don't worry Andy. I know you like me. Maybe not as much as I like you yet, but you do like me. You just need more time. You've always been afraid of getting close to people. The idea of marrying someone must terrify you. So I can wait.”   
A shrug. “Maybe you'll feel different after you avenge your father.”

He glanced up at that. Suddenly reminded of her grandfather's offer. After he avenged his father, he would come back as a full fledged Shiranui ninja and work for the clan. “Hanzo-sensei offered to adopt me into the Shiranui clan as a Genin. Did he tell you that?”

“No.” Mai blinked at him. Then smiled. “So, you'll be coming back to Japan anyway, since you'll be one of us -for real.”

“I...” He paused, suddenly unsure. “I haven't given him my answer yet. I- I never expected to be adopted into the clan when I came here, and Terry and Jeff are really the only family I've ever known...”

“The Shiranui clan isn't a family, Andy.” Mai snapped at him suddenly. A trickle of bitterness that hadn't been there before seeping into her voice. “We might be related, but we're not a family. The Shiranui clan is a business. You're a very good fighter, Andy, and you're naturally quiet -you can keep secrets- and you're tactical. Its a smart business decision for Ojisama to adopt you into the clan and make you a Genin. You'd be a good asset, and -if the social climate of the clan were just a little different- you'd make a good Chunin too.”

The American ninja never would have dreamed of actually being promoted within the clan. With the social climate being what it was, he imagined he'd be a Genin forever. But to be promoted to Chunin after a while, to be in charge of his own team... that sounded very nice. But that would only happen if Mai were head of the clan. Andy couldn't imagine Koinosuke or Shizune promoting him. He cast yet another suspicious glance at Mai. “And what would I have to do for you in order to be promoted to Chunin, Mai-dono.”

“Ooh! Don't call me '-dono', it sounds so stuffy!” She tried deflecting his question. But Andy held her gaze with a hard glare. Mai sighed. “Preform admirably as a Genin. Do your job well. When a Chunin position opens up, that's all I'll need to promote you.”

He was still suspicious. Andy knew she wanted him as a lover, or a husband, or both. But then again, she was also willing to wait -at least until he defeated Geese- before renewing her offers of marriage. So maybe she would respect the authority she'd have over him as head of the clan and not use it to pressure him into her bed either. In all honesty, he didn't know. Mai could sometimes be very hard for Andy to predict. 

Perhaps he was silent a little to long, because Mai waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, Andy, look at you all gloomy all of a sudden.” She laughed. “I'm not head of the clan, in case you haven't noticed. And if Uncle Nagare has anything to say about it, I never will be head of the clan. So stop worrying.”

He would still worry. Mai had an uncanny habit of getting her way. The fact that she was no longer engaged to Koinosuke was proof enough of that. Instead of commenting, Andy changed the subject. “Here is good.”

“For what?” She blinked at him, forgetting that their purpose in taking this stroll through the woods was to bring Tanuki-san back to his home. 

“This is around the place it got caught in the trap.” Andy informed her. He did not add that it was his trap the raccoon was caught in or that it was Jubei-sensei who told him to set it, or that he originally was supposed to kill the animal as practice for killing people. 

“Okay.” Mai hefted the raccoon in her arms, but made no move to let him go. “We should sweep the area for more traps just in case.

Suppressing a groan, Andy made a quick search for other traps he already knew weren't there. Then picked up the rest of what was left of his own snare. He turned back to Mai, hoping she was satisfied so they could let the thing go, return to the Yamada dojo, and he could get back to his training. While all these diversions certainly kept his life interesting, they did not help him achieve his goal. 

Nodding, she set the raccoon down on the ground. “There you go, Tanuki-san. Back to your home.”

The raccoon hesitated, fixing Andy with a suspicious glare. Then slunk back into its den in the hollow under the tree. 

“I hope he'll be okay.” Mai commented. 

“He's a wild animal in the wild.” Andy reminded her. “He'll be fine.”

He started heading back through the trees to the dojo. Half the day was already wasted on this little excursion. Maybe if he was lucky he wouldn't waste the other half and could get in some decent training before the next little distraction threw a wrench into things. Maybe he should go back to Tokyo for a couple nights and compete in the underground fighting rings again. Sure, the police might have busted the last one, but Higashi-kun said that there were always fights. Andy just had to find them. 

Kazutaka was still there when they got back, but he didn't stay much longer after that. Mai's father left before dinner, bidding his daughter goodbye with a kiss on the forehead. Before he left, the older man cast a meaningful look at Andy which the young ninja did not know how to interpret.

Then he left. 

…

And the raccoon came back the very next day.


End file.
